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UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 



PEN-PICTURES 



OF THE 



GREAT PUBLIC SCHOOLS OF ENGLAND, 



SKETCHES AND STORIES OF FAMOOS SCHOLARS, 
HENRY Frederic' REDDALL, 



AUTHOR OF 



From the Golden Gate to the Golden Kokn," ''Who Was He?" etc. 



.9^ 



OF 



CO/V<J;^ 



^^ -OPYRIGHT" 






i\^i5"/^ YORK: PHILLIPS &- HUNT. 

CINCINNA TI : CRANSTON <£t= ST OWE. 

1888. 



Copyright, iSSS, by 
F'HILLIF'S &• MUNT, 

New York. 



CONTENTS 



PAGE 

Frontispiece 3 

Introductory Sketch 7 

Winchester College 19 

Eton College 49 

St. Paul's School 97 

Shrewsbury Grammar School 109 

Christ Hospital 123 

Westminster School 163 

Merchant Taylors' School 185 

Rugby School 195 

Harrow School 219 

Charterhouse School 249 



INTRODUCTORY SKETCH, 




CERTAIN witty author once 
rather cleverly dedicated a preface 
"to the man who reads it." The 
present writer would much prefer 
to have no introduction, especially 
in a book intended to interest young folks. 
However, there is always this alternative 
for those who, like a little friend of mine, 
" hate a preface," — it may be skipped. But in the 
present instance there are some things to be said 
which must be said here or not at all, and those who 
honor me by beginning " at the very beginning " may 
console themselves with this crumb of comfort — that 
I have tried to put all the dull things in the book 
into this introductory sketch. 

To be a " public-school boy " in England means 
sometliing totally different from the idea conveyed 



8 Introductory Sketch. 

bj tlie same phrase in our own country. There, 
" board schools " provide an education for the chil- 
dren of the masses, and correspond to our system of 
public schools. For those youngsters whose parents 
prefer them, and are able to afford the expense, 
there are numberless private boarding-schools of all 
grades of excellence and of none at all, as is the case in 
the United States. But in England the term " public 
school " refers exclusively to ten richly endowed and 
very ancient seminaries for boys which have no coun- 
terpart either in our own land or on the Continent of 
Europe. They are in theory free to all, though as a 
matter of fact only the sons of the upper middle 
class and of the nobility and gentry attend them. 
All of these schools have been for centuries the 
nurseries of Englishmen, the fame and prowess of 
many of whom have • astonished the world. Nearly 
every man of note, in war and in peace, in the Church 
and in the forum, at the bar and in the field of let- 
ters, began his career at some one of these schools. 
Theirs are the scenes amid which England's greatest 
men fought their mimic battles ; their annals are re- 
plete with stories of thrilling interest to the boys and 



Intkoductory Sketch. 9 

girls of the English-speaking race every- where ; and 
the great public schools are as much a part of the 
nation's life as the twin universities of Oxford and 
Cambridge, to which they are in reality the stepping- 
stones. 

Some of these schools, while affording free shelter, 
subsistence, and a classical education to certain bene- 
ficiaries, are attended by a far larger number of boys 
who pay handsomely for the instruction received, as 
in the case of the "Oppidans" of Eton College, wlio, 
as the name implies, live in the town while pursuing 
their studies at the school. To this class belong 
Rugby, Harrow, Eton, Westminster, and Winches- 
ter schools. On the other hand. Charterhouse, St. 
Paul's School, Merchant Taylors', and Christ Hos- 
pital are purely benevolent institutions, wdiereat the 
tuition furnished is equal to that of any of the sister- 
hood of schools, though the benefits bestowed are by 
no means regarded as charitable. Tliey are sup- 
ported by ancient endowments from the crown or 
from wealthy citizens, or by incomes derived from 
rents and other investments. 

There are several smaller schools, as Bedford Gram- 



10 Introductory Sketch. 

mar School, founded 1552; Clieltenlia!n School; City 
of London School; Diilwich College ; King Edward's 
School, Birmingham, founded 1552 ; Manchester 
Free Grammar School, founded in 1515 ; Marl- 
iDorough College ; Repton Grammar School ; Sher- 
borne Grammar School, founded 1550; Tunbridge 
Grammar School, founded 1552 ; Uppingham School, 
founded 1584; Wellington College; Boteler Gram- 
mar School, founded 1526 ; Kmg Edward's School 
(1553), Bromsgrove, Worcestershire; Durham Gram- 
mar School (1541), King Edward VI.'s School (1542), 
Great Berkhamsted ; King's School, Canterbury ; 
Leammgton Proprietary College ; King Edw^ard 
VI.'s School (1547), Norwich; Queen Elizabeth's 
S(;hool, Ipswich ; Radley College, near Abingdon ; 
Richmond School (1567), Yorkshire ; the Royal 
Naval School (1833), at New Cross, Kent; St. 
Andrew's College (1853), at Bradfield, near Read- 
ing; and the Stationers' School (1858); but these, 
although equally ancient and honorable, are not 
usually classed among the great public founda- 
tions. 

Seeing: that reference has been made to tlie extreme 



Introductory Sketch. 11 

antiquity of the ten great public schools, it may not 
be amiss to give the precise date of the founding and 
the name of the founder of each : Wnichester, the 
oldest, was established by William of Wykeham in 
1382 ; Eton by William Waynflete, under the patron- 
age of Henry YI., in 1440 ; Merchant Taylors' School, 
1551; St. Paul's School in 1512; Christ Hospital 
(the far-famed " Blue-coat School ") also by Edward 
YI. in 1553; Westminster by Queen Elizabeth in 
1560; Shrewsbui-y Grammar School, 1562; Rugby 
by Lawrence Sheriffe, a London merchant, in 1567 ; 
Harrow by John Lyon, a wealthy yeoman, in 1571 ; 
and the Charterhouse by Thomas Sutton, another of 
London's generous citizens, in 1611. * So that 
Winchester, the oldest, boasts a hoary age of over 
^Ye centuries; while the youngest of the family, 
the Charterhouse School, is nearly three centuries 
old, having been established during Shakespeare's 
time, shortly after the accession of the first Stuart 
king of England, and more than ten years before the 
founding of Plymouth Colony in Massachusetts. 

* The ensuing sketches liave been arranged chronologically, and 
not according to the relative importance of the schools. 



12 Introductory Sketch. 

Eton, Merchant Taylors', Marlborough, Christ 
Hospital, and Westminster, are known as "Hojal 
Schools," in allusion to their founders. 

The opening of Winchester School marked a new 
era in English boy life, for until then the work of 
preparing lads for college had been entirely in the 
hands of the monasteries or of private tutors or gov- 
ernors. Upon William of Wykeham's plan, con- 
ceived at the close of the Dark Ages, all the great 
public schools of England were, with little alteration, 
modeled. As a consequence, the methods were anti- 
quated and the abuses many — some of the latter sur- 
viving until our own day. At length the attention 
of Government was called to the need of reform, and 
the " Public Schools Act," modifying the usages and 
practices of Eton, Winchester, Westminster, Charter- 
house, Harrow, Rugby, and Shrewsbury schools, was 
passed by Parliament July 31, 1868, and sundry 
amendments thereto became part of the laws of the 
realm in 1869, 1870, and 1873. New statutes for the 
schools were issued in October and November, 1869. 
The result of all this legislation was a modernization 
of the government and arrangements of these ancient 



Intuoductoky Sketch. 13 

foundations, and in nearly every case the changes 
wrought have been for the better. 

Pupils at these schools are " scholars " and " com- 
moners." The "scholars" or "foundationers" are 
supported by the schools, either freely or at com- 
paratively small cost, entering by success in competi- 
tive examinations. Their numbers are comparatively 
small, Eton and Winchester maintaining seventy each ; 
Kugby, sixty-one ; Harrow, thirty-one, and the rest in 
proportion. The bulk of the numbers at every school 
are "commoners," who live in the various masters' 
houses attached to the schools, twenty to forty in each 
house, and who pay for tuition and maintenance an- 
nual sums varying from $400 to $500 at Marlborough 
to $800 or $1,000 at Eton and Harrow. The two 
classes are distinguished by their dress, the "schol- 
ars" usually wearing a prescribed uniform. The 
"commoners" wear various costumes, such as tall 
hats and black jackets at Eton, speckled straw hats 
and dark suits at Rugby, and the peculiar long dark 
blue coats, yellow stockings, and no hat or cap, sum- 
mer or winter, at Christ HospitaL 

The government of the schools does not greatly 



1-i- Introductory Sketch. 

differ. Each of the "forms" or divisions in which 
eacli school is graded has a master who does all tlie 
teaching in Latin, Greek, and English history. He 
teaches his particular form only, and has nothing 
more to do with a boy who has once passed beyond 
it. Sometimes every boy in the school is put under 
the care of a tutor — one of the masters, who may or 
may not be tlie master of his form — and this tutor is 
supposed to assist him in his studies and with advice 
wlien needed, and generally to act as his friend. In 
some of the schools these duties are assumed by the 
highest or sixth-form boys. 

The government of every English public school is 
intrusted to a higher and a lower body. The former, 
composed of the head-master and the house-masters, 
deals with the graver class of offenses, and with 
appeals from tlie lower body. The latter is made up 
of the prefects, or monitors, as the sixth-form boys 
are designated, and has really a great deal to do with 
the government of the school. William of Wykeham 
originated this system by directing that three boys of 
age, scholarship, and judgment should be appointed 
to advise the head-master in affairs of management. 



Intkoductory Sketch. 15 

and they gradually assumed the authority of admin- 
istration themselves. Many abuses thus crept in, as a 
member of the sixth form could combine in himself 
the offices of accuser, judge, and executioner. JS^ow 
this state of things is changed, no boy being punished 
until he has had opportunity of appeal. Closely 
associated with this feature of school life is another, 
the institution of "fagging." This practice, with 
its name, originated in the scholars at Winchester 
having in early days to keep the fire supplied with 
fagots. By it, formerly, the younger boys were 
compelled to black boots and perform many menial 
offices for the sixth-form boys, but the services now 
required are very light. 

These schools proceed somewhat on the principle 
that boys will not study for the mere love of it. 
Inducements of many kinds are held out to tlieni 
to advance in their studies. Many scholarships are 
offered, of varying amounts, some tenable while in 
the school, others enabling the holder to pay his way 
subsequently through a university course. Another 
inducement to a boy to do well is that he is thereby 
relieved from the observance of a great many petty 



16 Introductorv Sketch. 

rules and regulations. Nine tenths of tlie boys never 
trouble themselves about scholarships, making it 
their hio^hest aim to secure an advance now and then 
from one form to another, without doing which tliej 
would not be permitted to remain in the school. 

It has been said that we have nothing in this coun- 
try corresponding with the English public school, nor 
liave we. 'No ordinary seminary or boarding-school 
life comes anywhere near the peculiar atmosphere and 
surroundings of such institutions as Eton, Harrow, 
or Christ Hospital. Formerly the amount of learning 
they instilled into the boys was small — the Parlia- 
mentary Commission discovered instances of dreadful 
ignorance on the part of some of the boys who stood 
high in their classes — and although all this is now 
changed for the better, it cannot be gainsaid that in 
some instances the social advantages outweigh the 
educational benefits. The associations and friend- 
ships formed at Eton and Harrow, Westminster and 
Winchester, are of untold value in after life, and, 
like the mandarin's button, serve as a passport to the 
best society, and an " open sesame " to the leading 
professions — the Bar, the Army, and the Church. 



Intkoductory Sketch. 17 

Above all, the public schools give polish and that 
indescribable something called '• manners." Of 
course, as the homely old adage has it, a silk purse 
cannot be made out of a sow's ear, and the boy who 
is by nature a boor or a bully, a coxcomb or a coward, 
will probably remain such even after passing tlirougli 
the searching ordeal of life at a public school ; wliile 
a naturally brave and honest fellow, let him be never 
so rough, will probably emerge from the fiery crnci- 
ble refined and bettered, a gentle, manly youth. 

Happy indeed the lads whose lines fall in such 
pleasant places as these hoary and venerable old insti- 
tutions, with their traditions and history running far 
back into the romantic past, and their ancient annals 
crowded with the names and deeds of English 
worthies who trod their time-worn pavements in by- 
gone days. 

Some of the sketches contained herein were origi- 
nally published in various periodicals over the 
author's signature, but they have all been revised 
and greatly lengthened in their present shape. 

Acknowleds^ments are due to the Ilead-masters of 



18 Introductory Sketch. 

Eton, Hiigby, Westminster, Ciiarterlionse, Merchant 
Taylors', and Winchester schools, for information 
kindly and promptly furnished in response to in- 
quiries. 

To Charterhouse, Past and Present, by William 
Haig Brown, Head-master of that school ; to Etoniana 
Ancient and Modern, by Lucas Collins ; to Lyte's 
History of Eton College ; to WyTcehamica ; to the 
Rughy School Register, 1675-1874:; to The Great 
Schools of England, by Mr. E. Staunton ; to the 
Hand-looh to the Principal Schools of England, by 
C. E. Pascoe ; to Mr. G. F. Kussell Barker, for valu- 
able data connected with Westminster School; and 
to the various School Kegisters, the author is in- 
debted for much valuable information and mnny 
interesting details. H. F. 11. 



WINCHESTER COLLEGE 

Plotto: 

"MANNERS MAKYTH MAN." 



Winchester College 



(ST. MARY'S.) 




N the middle of the fourteenth 
century, says J. R. Green, the 
historian of the Englisli people, 
"the great movement toward 
freedom and unity which had 
begun under the last of the Norman 
kings seemed to liave reached its end, and 
the perfect fusion of conquerors and con- 
quered into an English people was marked 
b}^ the disuse, even among the nobler classes, of the 
French tongue. In spite of the efforts of the schools 
and of the strength of fashion, English was winning 
its way throughout the reign of Edward Third to its 
final triumph in that of his grandson." This tendency 
toward the general use of the tongue of the common 
people had a powerful effect on literature and educa- 
tion. Chaucer poured forth his matchless tales, and 
" the new gladness of a great people utters itself in 
his verse." The time is also noteworthy because of 



22 School-Boy Life in Mekrie England. 

the establishment of the first of the great Enghsh 
foundations known as " Public Schools." 

" In those daj^s," sajs Froissart, " there reigned in 
England a priest named William of Wykeham, who 
was so much in favor with the king that every thing 
was done by him, and nothing was done without 
him." William Longe was born at Wykeham, Hamp- 
shire, in the summer of 1324. Of humble birth, he 
owed his education at the grammar school of Win- 
chester to the generosity of J^icholas Uvedale, lord of 
the manor of Wykeham and constable of Winchester 
Castle ; and having served as secretary to that noble- 
man and later filling the same post under Bishop 
Edynton, of Winchester, he gained throngh their 
influence a place at court in 1348. King Edward 
Third appointed him clerk of the Royal Works in 
1356, and he built Queenborough Castle in the Isle of 
Sheppey. A nobler proof of his great ability as an 
architect was the rebuilding of Windsor Castle, where, 
however, the presumptuous legend " thys made 
Wykeham," set up in a conspicuous place, had like 
to cost him the king's favor, but for his clever expla- 
nation that Windsor Castle was the making of Mm. 

" Meanwhile from deacon's (1352) he rose to priest's 
orders in the next ten years, and received (1357) the 



Winchester College. 23 

Norfolk rectory of Pulbam, first in a long series of 
church preferments, inchiding a deanery, archdea- 
conry, and seventeen canonries. In 1359 he became 
chief warden and surveyor of sundry royal castles 
and manors, in 1363 warden of the king's forests on 
the south side of Trent, in 1364 keeper of the Privy 
Seal and secretary to Edward III. Being charged 
with three others to negotiate the ransom of the 
captive David II. (1365), he was raised to the see of 
Winchester (1366), and within a twelvemonth created 
Lord High Chancellor." 

Wykeham was now at the zenith of his power, and 
very soon his sun began to set. Having in 1371 
resigned both the Great and the Privy Seals, he was 
accused in 1376 of embezzlement, oppression, and 
other acts of misgovernment. But the charge fell 
through after costing him ten thousand marks ; and 
from the restoration of his episcopal castles and the 
reformation of the religious houses throughout his 
diocese, he was free to turn to the great object of 
his life — the founding of the two great institutions 
of learning — New College, Oxford, and Winchester 
School. Wykeham was not a controversialist ; 
neither was he a Protestant like his great contempo- 
rary, Wickliife ; rather was he a churchman who 



21 School-Boy Life in Merrie England. 

cared very little for doctrine and more for the solidity 
and splendor of the Church's institutions. 

His aim in founding Winchester School — the 
first of its kind, and a pattern to Eton and all suc- 
ceeding schools — is well set forth in his address in 
1366: "Wherein I am wanting myself, that will I 
supply by a brood of more scholars than all the prel- 
ates of England ever showed." " Study the Script- 
ures and grammar, the foundation stone, gateway, 
and source of all other arts and sciences," is the main 
precept of Wykeham's wise and liberal statutes, where 
Wykehamists are led to esteem no man's person, but 
themselves to observe that courtly bearing set forth 
in the founder's motto, " Manners makyth man." 

Wykeham having become once more Cliancellor, 
from 1389-91, died at South Waltham, Se])tember 
27, 1401, and was buried in Winchester Cathedral, 
the nave of which he was then re-building. 

The College of Winchester, called originally " Seinte 
Marie College of Wynchestre," was founded in 1387, 
and the buildings were completed in 1393. The build- 
ings for the most part are of the time of the founder, 
and consist of ten quadrangles and a cloister, together 
with more recently erected houses for the commoners. 

The foundation, says the school record, " consisted 



WmciJ ESTER College. 25 

originally of a warden, ten fellows, seventy scholars, 
a liead-master (informator)^ an usher {ostiarlus), or 
second master, three chaplains, three clerks or singing- 
men, and sixteen choristers. By an ordinance of the 
Oxford University Commission, which took effect in 
1857, the number of fellowships has been reduced, as 
vacancies occur, to six, the number of scliolars being 
increased to seventy-six, and eight exhibitions have 
been founded. The charter of the school, whicli is 
still in existence, was granted by Richard II. in 139G, 
and confirmed by all the subsequent sovereigns, Mary 
excepted, down to Charles II. The visitor is tlie 
Bishop of Winchester, and the warden and two fel- 
lows of New College, Oxford, hold an annual ' scru- 
tiny,' which, however, is generally merely formal. 
The endowment, which amounts at present to about 
£15,500 annually, consists of landed property and 
funded stock ; and of this about £2,600 goes to ex- 
penses of management. The warden and fellows 
are the governing body of the college. The pupils 
of the school are of two classes — foundation scholars 
and commoners. The scholars are elected, between 
twelve and fourteen years of age, by competitiv^e ex- 
amination ; the average annual number of vacancies 
being twelve, and the number of candidates one 



26 School-Boy Life in Merrie England. 

hundred. The scholars are well boarded, lodged, 
and educated, at the expense of the foundation ; hav- 
ing to pay, for some incidental charges, books, medical 
attendance, etc., about £30 per annum ; but tradi- 
tion exercises a powerful influence at Winchester, 
and many of the quaint old customs of the school, 
such as dining off wooden trenchers, etc., are still re- 
tained. The number of the commoners has fluctuated 
much ; but, owing to the better position in which 
they were placed by the new regulations of 1857, 
they have averaged three hundred annually for some 
years; they generally enter between twelve and 
fifteen years of age, and stay three or four years, and 
not being foundation-boys are boarded in the houses 
of the head and other masters, at a total annual cost 
of about £135 (including expense of tuition, pocket- 
money, and cost of traveling). Winchester possesses 
fifteen fellowships and thirty scholarships at New 
College, Oxford, open to scholars and commoners 
alike, and tenable for five years, besides numerous 
other prizes." 

William of Wykeham founded Winchester College 
to prepare boys for the new course of study which in 
1386 he had introduced at " New College," Oxford 
University. Pupils received gratuitous instruction 



Winchester College. 27 

and sustenance, the latter consisting at first almost 
entirely of bread and beer ! A requisite to entrance 
was a knowledge of the rudiments of Latin and 
music. The course of study included Latin only till 
1530, when Greek was introduced in the Sixth Form. 

Winchester College stands a little without the 
city, on College Street. A branch of the clear and 
swift river Itchen passes through the warden's 
garden on its way to join the parent stream. The 
college consists of two courts, around which are 
grouped the entrance tower, the school-room, the 
chapel, the hall or refectory, the college library, and 
the new school building — the last a comparatively 
modern building, the ancient school wherein Wayn- 
flete taught having been the room now known as 
" the Seventh Chamber." 

" At each side of the school are three tiers of fixed 
seats, where the boys sit when * up to books.' Dis- 
posed along other parts of the room are ranges of oak 
benches, upon which stand the boxes, or ' scobs,' that 
form a desk, and also a receptacle for books and writ- 
ing materials." On the west wall, upon a large tab- 
let, are painted a miter and crozier, to represent the 
rewards of clerical learning ; a pen and inkhorn and 
a sword, the insignia of civil and military pursuits ; 



28 ' School-Boy Life in Merrie England. 

and a long Winton rod, typifying the punishment of 
those too indolent to apply themselves to study or act- 
ive life. Beneath each emblem is the appropriate 
legend : Aut disce, " Either learn ; " Aiit discede, 
" or depart hence ; " Manet sors tertia ccedi, " The 
third choice is to be chastised." These three legends 
liave been jocosely rendered by the boys : 



^&" 



" Study hard, or elt>e be jogging, 
Or you'll gel a plaguey flogging." 

At the north end of the school are posted the rules 
for the conduct of the students, which were drawn up 
by Wykeham himself. 

Winchester has its own peculiar arrangement and 
classification of the scholars, as follows : 



Sixth Book 



f Senior Part. 

I 
Fifth Book... { Middle Part. 

L Junior Part. 



Senior Division. 

Junior Division. 
( Senior Division. 
( Junior Division. 



( Senior Division. 
I Junior Division. 

{Senior Division. 
Junior Division. 

There are no lower forms, and the entire school is 
thus classed in eight regular grades. The hours for 
study are : From 7 to 7 : 30 — morning school ; 9 to 



Winchester College. 29 

12 — middle school ; 3 to 6 — evening school. The 
holidays consist of sixteen days at Easter, six weeks 
at midsummer, and five weeks at Christmas. Every 
saint's day is a holiday, and in " Common-time " (the 
whole of the short half year and ten weeks of the long 
lialf) there are three " Half Kemedies" in each week 
—on Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday. Only the reg- 
ular saints' days are called " holidays ;" the ordinary 
off days are called "Kemedies" and "Half Eem- 
edies." 

The boys sleep five or six in a room. In the day- 
time, when not in school, the boys sit in the common 
hall, where each boy has his " toy," or private cup- 
board. The twenty senior boys have small private 
studies. 

Winchester has the honor of originating the name 
and custom of fagging, as noted in the preface, and 
the institution is to this day more jealously guarded 
there than at any other public school. Though none 
but the eighteen prefects have power to fag, they 
use their privilege with great severity. Thus, " a boy 
may be valet to one prefect, whom he waits on in his 
chamber ; breakfast fag to another, whom he attends 
at tea in hall ; and liable to be sent on errands and to 
be made to field at cricket at the bidding of any pre- 



30 School-Boy Life in Mekrie England. 

fe6t who may want those services performed. Some 
of a fag's duties are of a very servile nature ; and as 
the fagging in college is on a different footing from 
the fagging in commons — the one depending on length 
of standing in college, the other on position in school 
— a boy who, being a commoner, is elected a scholar, 
has to go through a second period of this abject 
servitude." 

The monitorial system also flourishes in greater 
power at Winchester than at any other school, 'and 
may be traced to the statutes of the founder himself. 
There are eighteen of these monitors, or prefects, 
who obtain their positions by seniority, and their 
power over the boys is well-nigh absolute. For cent- 
uries there was a custom in vogue, now happily abol- 
ished, called "tuuding" (from the Latin Umdo, to 
beat or bruise), which was a thrashing with ashen 
sticks given to a school-fellow by one of these moni- 
tors for a petty breach of discipline. The regular 
punishments at Winchester consist of impositions 
(to be learned by heart), confinement, caning, flogging, 
and expulsion. Flogging is now a rare occurrence. 
Formerly the boys were birched for the most trivial 
offenses. " In fact," says an Old Boy, " a lad was not 
considered a Wykehamist until he had been flogged. 



Winchester College. 31 

In my own case this distinction was very speedily at- 
tained. I became a Wykehamist almost as soon as I 
entered the school, and made the acquaintance of the 
instrument of torture, called vimen quadrifidiim, 
which consists of a long handle with four apple twigs 
tied at the end by way of a thong." 

What is known as " Pulpiteens " at Winchester is 
a peculiarity in classical teaching. All the boys of the 
first three divisions are assembled at stated times for 
construing lessons in Homer, Virgil, and Horace. 
The prefects read out and construe about a hundred 
lines of one of these authors. When the seniors have 
gone as far as the master desires they are excused, 
and then the assembled youngsters are called up one 
by one to construe the same passage. 

Another old custom consists in writing three times 
a week a Latin epigram called a " Yulgus." The 
head-master gives out a subject, and next morning 
the boys are expected to hand in six lines of elegiac 
verse as well turned as they can make it. " Stand- 
ing-up Week " formerly occurred in the summer term, 
when the boys were encouraged to stand up and re- 
peat from memory as many lines of Latin or Greek 
verse or prose as they could remember. 

Side by side with the Wykeham " boy prefects " 



82 School-Boy Life in Meiiuie England. 

may be placed the " boy tutors." Each of the ten 
senior boys in college has assigned to him some of the 
jmiiors as pupils. His province it is to examine and 
correct the boys' exercises before they are shown to 
the masters, and if a pupil is unable to do his work 
the boy tutor is to assist him. The " boy tutor" is 
also responsible in some degree for the good behavior 
of tlie boys under him, and for all these duties he re- 
ceives from the parents of the boy thus assisted the 
sum of two guineas yearly. This is another survival 
of the founder's regulations. 

Mention must be made of the famous Dulce 
Doinuin^ the holiday song of Winchester College. 
Mr. Brandon says it was composed by a poor scholar 
who w^as conlined for misconduct during the Whit- 
suntide holidays, being, as report says, tied to a pillar. 
After pouring out his sorrow in the w^ords of the 
hymn he took to his room and died of a broken heart. 
Such, at least, is one version of the story. On the 
evening preceding the Whitsun holiday, and on the 
last six Saturdays of the " long half," immediately 
before "evening hills" (a time-honored "constitu- 
tional " to St. Catherine's Hill), the masters, scholars, 
and choristers walk in procession round the pillar 
chanting the stanzas of the song. The music was 



Winchester College. 



33 



written by John Eeading, who died 1740, and who 
also wrote the tune of " Adeste Fideles." 



DULCE DOr.lUM 

Moderato. 



\% — I i^i — I— i^-j — I J — T^-^-i— h.-,— , -A ^ ^-^.^.^.^.^ 



— r 









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School- Boy Life in Mereie England. 



1st Ydice 



^-1--^.^— , 



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li^il^i^i^ 



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O So - da - les E - ja! quid si 



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Piano. 



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No - bi - le can - ti - cum 



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Winchester College. 



35 



tr 



Chorus. 



^i^ 



.^— ti: 



:P=i^i 



-ne - mus. Do-nium, Do - mum Dul - ce Do - mum, 






=^^ 



^ 



:zqszi: 



- mus. Do-mum, Do - mum Dul - ce Do - mum, 

--1 1^ 1 1 ,-| IS- 




0=:m: 



Verse. 









iff^t 



i^zd 



Do - mum, D(t -mum Dul - ce Do-mum. Dul - ce, Dul - ce, 









Do - mum, Do -mum Dul - ce Do-mum. Dul - ce, Dul - ce, 



?izzi^:x=J^ 



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pia. 



liEEffi^iEE«: 



-•r^: 



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;1^d: 



Chorus. ^ 



1=^ 



=*-i^_S=i 



Dul - ce Domuin, Dul - ce Do -mum re - - so-ne-mus. 



■.M^^z^s-=i-z=l:^=z : Jz=z:^-ii=:^Tii^z z^—J ^J^j)—^. 



Dul - ce Do-mum, Dul - ce Do - mum re 






z^zii* 






:=t5:*"- 



gs; 






36 School- Boy Life in Merkie England. 






W^^^^ 






-^ — q-=q 



z^—M- Mzizm 



^ 



@ i=^^^^9=3= 



-*- -•- -*■ 



HS3^ 



Appropinquat ecce! felix 
Hora gauclioruin : 
Post grave ticdium 
Advenit omnium 
Meta i^etita laborum. 
Cho. — Domum, Domnm, &c. 

3. 

Musa! libros mitto, fessa; 
Mitte pensa dura: 
Mitte negotium; 
Jam datur otium: 
Me mea mittito cura. 
Cho. — Domum, Domum, &c. 



4. 

Ridet annus, prata rident: 
Nosque rideamus. 
Jam repetit Domum 
Dauliasadvena: 
Nosque Domum repetamus. 
Cho. — Domum, Domum, &c. 

5. 
Heus! Rogere! fercaballos: 
Eja! nunc eamus; 
Limen amabile, 
Matris et oscula, 
Suaviter et rej^etamus. 
Cho. — Domum, Domum, &c. 



6. 

Concinamus ad Penates; 
Vox et audiatur: 
Phospliore ! quid jubar, 
Segnius emicans, 
Gandia nostra moratur? 
Cho. — Domum, Domum, 



&c. 



Winchester College. 87 

The sports and pastimes at Winchester are cricket, 
racquets, fives, and football. There are no boating 
facilities, the Itchen being a slender and turbulent 
stream. But in ciicket the Wykehamists excel, and 
they contend annually, and often successfully, against 
Eton and Harrow, in one year (1851) Winchester van- 
quishing both. The inatches between Winchester and 
Eton are sometimes played at Lord's Ground, but 
usually take place at one or other of the schools. 

Among the eminent men who were educated at 
Winchester may be enumerated eight archbishops and 
more than threescore bishops. The bench, the army, 
poetry, and literature are even better represented. 
Here are a few of Wykeham's worthies: Dr. 
Thomas Arnold and Matthew Arnold, his son ; An- 
thony Ashley, better known as the Earl of Shaftes- 
bury ; William Collins, the poet ; Christopher 
Wordsworth, Bishop of Lincoln ; William Grocyn, 
the linguist ; Bishop Ken, author of the world-famed 
" Evening Hymn ;" Robert Lowth, Bishop of Lon- 
don ; Trelawny, one of tlie followers of Monmouth, 
whose danger after Sedgmoor raised the well-known 
couplet : 

" And shall Trelawny die? And shall Trelawny die? 

Then thirty thousand Cornishraon will know the reason why;" 



38 School-Boy Life in Merrie England. 

Lord Redesdale, Irish Chancellor ; Mr. Justice 
Nares ; Sir Rouiidell Pahner, sometime Attorney- 
General ; Yisconnt Addington, Prime Minister in 
1801 ; the Right Hon. Edward Card well; Sir Robert 
Lowe — the last four all well-known statesmen. 
Amons: soldiers and sailors of note we find Generals 
Sir Robert Wilson, Lord Seaton, Sir Andrew Bar- 
nard, Sir William Myers, Sir Alexander Woodford, 
Sir W. S. Robbins, Bradshaw, and Carey, Admirals 
Sir J. B. Warren, Young — nicknamed " Straightfor- 
rard Young " — and Keats, who, ofi St. Domingo, car- 
ried the frigate Siiperhe into action, lasliing a portrait 
of Nelson to the mizzen rigging and causing the band 
to play " The Battle of the Nile." 

Edward Young, author of the " Night Thoughts," 
was a Wykehamist, as was also Whitehead, poet lau- 
reate in 1757, Charles Dibdin, Otway, and Somer- 
ville. Her wits and men of letters are not a bit less 
famous, among them being Andrew Borde, Sir Henry 
Sidney, father of Sir Philip ; Sir Henry Wotton, 
the friend of Milton ; Sir Thomas Brown, Joseph 
Spence, the biographer of Pope ; Sydney Smith, and 
a host of others. 

" Wykehamists may well point with pride," says 
Ml". Wolcott, " to the roll of those great and good 



Winchester College. 3D 

men who liave sat in the same school, l:nelt in the 
same chapel, cricketed or played at football in the 
same field, bathed in the same stream, and venerated 
her successful champions in senate, parish, bar, or 
camp." 

We close this chapter with an interesting account 
of a visit paid to Winchester's old school by a noted 
traveler and correspondent : * 

Apart from the many illustrious men whom it has 
produced, Winchester College has a special interest 
of its own, from its having j^reserved more of its 
original form and character than any other of the 
great schools of England. Kugby and Harrow — 
mere infants at best when compared with fourteenth- 
century Winchester — are now modernized bej^ond 
recognition. Even classic Eton itself would not be 
likely to offer many familiar features to the eye of its 
founder, Henry YI., if that most saintly of English 
monarchs were to revisit it now. But Winchester, 
although it has just celebrated its five hundredth an- 
niversary, has succeeded in preserving till within a 
very few years of the present time all the essential 
features of what it was when it first came from the 
hands of the good old Bishop who founded it in the 

* David Ker. 



40 School-Boy Life in Mkkkie England. 

days of Richard II. Even now, in spite of all recent 
jiltei'ations, it retains enough of its mediaeval charac- 
teristics to be one of the most picturesque and inter- 
esting monuments of the past in the whole South of 
England. 

" You're just in time to see the place in working 
order, for the school breaks up to-morrow," says one 
of the masters, who has kindly undertaken to show 
me every thing that is to be seen. " The Scotch and 
Irish boys go down to-night and all the rest follow to- 
morrow morning. It's rather a pity, by the bye, that 
you weren't here for the anniversary celebration last 
Friday and Saturday, for as it was our five hundredth 
anniversarj^, of course we made as big a thing of it 
as w^e could." 

"I must try to console myself," answer I. "But 
where are you taking me now?" 

" To the porter's lodge, where a good many of our 
'college antiques' are preserved. He's quite a char- 
acter, this porter of ours, and if you had time for a 
regular talk with him he could tell you a good deal 
til at would be well worth hearing." 

Tlie next moment we find ourselves in front of the 
low doorway of the porter's lodge, which is quite filled 
up by the burly figure of the worthy porter himself, a 



WiNciiESTEii College. 41 

riiddj, stalwart John Bull, wliose jolly face seems to 
make quite a snnshine in the shadowy interior, lie 
greets us heartily, and proceeds to exhibit with evi- 
dent satisfaction his nniseum of local ciirioeities. 
First comes an ancient " scourge," used in maintain- 
ing the discipline of the school, not unlike a long- 
handled birch broom, the supple, wiry, whip-liko 
twigs of which must have been no joke to encounter 
when wielded by some muscular pedagogue whose 
heart was in his w^ork. Next in the list ligures a 
quaint, old-fashioned desk of dark oak — one of those 
which the young students call " toys " in their jx'cu- 
liar dialect — at wdiich the Wykehamists of former 
generations used to prepare their lessons. Among 
the countless names rudely carved or scribbled upon 
its surface is one for the preservation of wdiich every 
lover of English literature and natural history will be 
thankful—" Frank Buckland, 1844." Then follow a 
number of antique tiles — with the pattern of a star 
or a lily neatly worked upon each — dug up during 
the repairs of the college kitchen. Several clumsy 
iron keys of the old school and a few rather clever 
carvings done by the boys themselves complete the 
collection. 

The inspection over, we marched out into the great 



42 ScriooL-BoY Life in Merrie En(;land. 

quadrangle, where the porter points with a broad 
grin to a stone trough close to the wall, overhung 
by a spout, and informs us that within the memory 
of living man this trough and spout represented the 
washing apparatus reserved for the use of the school- 
boys. "Wliy, there's plenty of gentlemen been to 
visit the place," says he, " who remember quite well 
having washed themselves at that trough when they 
were at school here." " It must have taken a very 
long while," suggest I, " for so many boys to wash 
here one after another." " Well, I don't know about 
that, sir," rejoins the porter with a significant 
chuckle, " for you see each boy wouldn't waste much 
time over the job, anyhow." 

From this historical trough w^e pass to the college 
kitchen. In the vestibule of the kitchen is a very 
queer old picture, which was unearthed in the course 
of repairs, after lying concealed for more than three 
centuries. The painting represents a human figure 
in the embroidered blue coat and red hose of an old- 
fashioned English serving-man, with an ass's head, a 
pig's snout, a padlock on his under jaw, a sword by 
his side, and a shield at his back, the sharp hoofs of 
a stag instead of feet, a pitchfork, broom, and shovel 
grasped in his left hand, while his right is out- 



Winchester College. 43 

stretched and open. This extraordinary hobgoblin is 
labeled " The Trusty Servant," and the explanation 
of the allegory — which certainly appears to need one 
— is given by an inscription in Latin verse beneath 
the portrait, to which the following translation is 
subjoined : 

" A trusty servant's portrait would j'ou see, 
This emblematic figure well survey. 
The porker's snout 'not nice in diet' shows, 
The paddock shut — no secrets he'll disclose ; 
Patient the ass his master's wrath will bear, 
Swiftness in errand the stag's feet declare. 
Loaded his left hand 'apt to labor' saith. 
The vest his neatness, open hand his faith; 
Girt with his sword, his shield upon his arm, 
Himself and master he'll protect from harm." 

After a short survey of the kitchen itself — which 
presents no very notew^orthy features except the mass- 
ive beams of black oak which cross and recross its 
whitewashed ceiling — we pass on to the school chapel. 
Modernized though it is, it is undeniably worth see- 
ing, but its chief interest centers upon the memorial 
tablets at the entrance. Here one may read the 
names of the brave lads who went straight from the 
cricket field to the battle field, and died like English 
soldiers upon tlie fatal hill-side of the Alma or the 
trampled uplands around Sebastopol. It was indeed 



41 School- Boy Life in Merrie England. 

a just and noble thought which traced beneath the 
shrine of these heroic dead the grand and consohng 
words spoken ages ago by Him in vvlioni is life ever- 
lasting: "God is not a God of the dead, but of the 
living, for all live unto him." 

But if the chapel be modern, the cloisters beyond 
it are not. The ribbed roof with its mighty oaken 
rafters, tlie pointed arches, the massive pillars, the 
ghostly shadow and deep dreamy stillness — amid 
which the echo of our footsteps sounds unnaturally 
loud — all speak so strongly of the past that we should 
liardly be surprised to see William of Wykeham him- 
self, with his episcopal crozier and miter, come 
sweeping toward us from the door of the beautiful 
chantry which he built here *' for the repose of his 
soul," and which is certainly as well worth a visit as 
any spot in the whole college, 

" Now we come to the old school-room," says our 
guide, unlocking another door, " but it's been so much 
altered of late that you would hardly know it again if 
you had seen it in its original state. I have an en- 
graving of it at home as it was before the alterations, 
Avhich I'll show you when we have finished our in- 
spection. You see there are still a few relics of the 
old style remaining. That arm-chair raised above 



WiNciiL-STER College. 45 

the floor at the upper end of tlie room was for the 
head-mastei", and two of the presidents sat in tliose 
two chairs to right and left of it. Then the bojs, 
when they had prepared their lessons at tlie lower 
end of the room, came np and said them on that long 
oaken bench that runs along the wall below the 
head-master's chair, and that's why we still talk 
of 'going up to books' instead of 'going into school.' 
And there, on that board up above the door, are the 
original Latin rules of the school, if you can see to 
read them." 

There they are, sure enough, those quaint, crabbed 
symbols of the iron discipline prevalent in the 
" good old times," when no boy was supposed to have 
properly completed his education unless he had been 
flogged at least once or twice a week till the blood 
ran down. One can fancy what the young scape- 
graces of that age would think of injunctions to 
" keep their eyes modestly fixed upon the ground," 
and to " let nothing light or profane be read among 
them," a rule whicli must have borne very hard upon 
any poor little fellow who had secretly brought his 
favorite " Arabian Nights " or " Kobinson Crusoe " 
into school alono^ with him. 

By this time the day is wearing toward afternoon, 



46 School-Boy Life in Merrie England. 

and we have to make short work of the great 
dining hall, which, with its dai-k Ciiken screen and 
antiquated " buttery hatch," looks more thoroughly 
mediaeval than any thing we have yet seen. On a 
kind of raised dais at the upper end of the room ap- 
pears a small round table with a single knife and fork 
upon it, intended for the use of the luckless official 
whose duty it is to preside at the school dinners, and 
who sits here in solitary state, like a professional 
Robinson Crusoe on an extremely limited island. 
As I begin to make notes of these details there is 
produced for my inspection one of the old-fashioned 
"platters" formerly used in this hall, which are now 
almost superseded by the modern plate. It is a 
smooth, square piece of wood, hardly bigger than an 
ordinary Dutch stove tile, and absolutely without rim 
or protection of any sort along its edges. 

" How on earth did they manage with their gravy 
in those days ? " ask I, looking wonderingly at this 
characteristic sample of the wisdom of our ancestors. 
" It seems to me that they might just as well have 
eaten their dinners off the table itself — rather better, 
in fact, for then tlie gravy would have had farther to 
run." 

"Well," was the laughing reply, "I believe the 



Winchester College. 47 

correct thing was to make a wall of potatoes along 
the four sides, and then put the gravy in the 
middle. Besides, I dare say that in the good old 
times they didn't trouble themselves as much about 
a few splashes of grease, more or less. See, here's 
one of our ancient ' black jacks.' " 

He points to a huge antique jug of black leather, 
which, although now leaky and useless, has evidently 
seen plenty of service in its time. When filled to 
the brim it must certainly have held a gallon of 
strong beer, and even the miglity drinkers of the 
olden time probably found one such bumper quite 
enough for them. I inwardly wonder whether one 
of the essential qualifications required from a six- 
teenth century master of the school can have been 
the capacity of emptying this formidable tankard at 
a single draught without taking breath, or whether 
the boys were permitted to drink out of it ? 

Then we go through some of the old rooms, which, 
with their oaken " supporting pillar " in the center, 
and their deep, niche-like windows, with stone steps 
leading up to them, are certainly a curious sight. In 
one corner I notice a queer antique bedstead, said to 
date back to the time of William of Wykeham him- 
self, with a kind of a wooden hutch over the head of 



48 



School-Boy Life in Mereie England. 



it, not unlike the liood of a cab. But this ancient 
bed, on which some mediaeval youngster once 
dreamed of endless holidays and unlimited taffy, now 
serves tlie ominous purpose of containing the official 
birches used in administering punishment. 




ETON COLLEGE 

iimotto : 

FLOREAT ETONA." 



Eton College 



" Then, hand in hand, her Tames the Forrest softly brings, 
To that siipreainest place of the great English kings, 
The Garters Rojall seate, from him who did advance 
That princely order first, our first that conquered France ; 
The Temple of Saint George, wheras his honored knights, 
Upon his hallowed day, observed their ancient rites: 
Where Eaton is at hand to nurse that learned brood, 
To keepe the Muses still neere to this Princely Flood; 
Tliat nothing there may want, to beautifie that seate. 
With every pleasure stor'd: And here my song compleate." 

— Drayton. 

LOATING seaward down the 
historic river of Thame the voy- 
ager, soon after leaving tlie ma- 
jestic towers and turrets of Wind- 
^^ sor, comes to a scene of quiet beauty, 
the foreground of which consists of hish 
meadows witli sedgy banks, in marked con- 
trast to the opposite chalky cliff crowned 
with its noble keep. Beyond the meadow, whereon 
cattle browse and low, he sees a cluster of mellow- 
toned brick buildings, the arch and pinnacles of an 




52 School-Boy Life in Mekrie England. 

ecclesiastical edifice of some sort rising still further 
bejond. This is tlie first glimpse of Eton College 
as seen from tlie river. From the town of Windsor 
or from the terrace of the castle one may gain a more 
extended view, but no approach to this nursery of 
youth equals in beauty the view from the historic 
stream. 

Among the quintet of Royal Schools Eton stands 
pre-eminent — not that the education furnislied there 
is any better than at Harrow or Rugby, Winchester 
or Westminster — but on account partly of its great 
antiquity and honorable traditions, and partly because 
of the large number of noble names associated with 
its annals, whether as mastei-s or scholars. It is, in 
fact, England's greatest school. The Duke of Well- 
ington once said that "the battle of Waterloo was 
won in the playing fields of Eton," for it was the 
game of foot-ball that taught him strategy. 

Eton is a pleasant town of Buckinghamshire, on 
the left bank of the Thames, opposite the royal town 
of Windsor, with which it is connected by a graceful 
bridge. This part of the valley of Thame is historic 
ground. Runnymede is but a few miles away, and 
the castle, park, and forest of Windsor are almost at the 
school gates. Thomas Gray, the poet, an enthusiastic 



Eton College. 53 

Etonian, lias well pictured the beauties of the site of 
Eton. 

In his lines " On a Distant Prospect of Eton 
College " the author of the famous " Elegy " has 
given us one of the most thoughtful and beautiful 
productions of his muse. In it he pursues the same 
sweetly melancholy train of thought that distin- 
guishes the " Elegy " from nearly every poem in our 
language, and both it and the " Lines " are in the 
minor key. We give them here in full : 

*' Ye distant spires, ye antique towers, 

That crown the water}' glade, 
Wliere grateful science still adores 

Her Henry's holy shade ; 
And ye that from the stately brow 
Of Windsor's heights th' expanse below 

Of grove, of lawn, of mead survey, 
"Whose turf, whose shade, whose flowers among, 
Wanders the hoary Thames along 

His silver-winding way ; 

Ah, happy hills, ah, pleasing shade, 

Ah, fields beloved in vain, 
Where once my careless childliood strav'd, 

A stranger yet to pain ! 
I feel the gales that from you blow 
A momentary bliss bestow, 

As waving fresh their gladsome wing. 
My weary soul they seem to soothe, 
And, redolent of joy and youth, 

To breathe a second spring. 



54: School-Boy Life in Mekkie England. 

Say, Father Thames, for lliou hast seen 

Full many a sprightly race, 
Disporthig on thy margent green, 

The paths of pleasure trace. 
Who foremost now delight to cleave, 
Witli pliant arm thy glassy wave ? 

Tlie captive hnnet which enthral? 
What idle progeny succeed 
To chase the rolling circle's speed, 

Or urge the flying ball? 



Wliile some on earnest business bent, 

Their murm'ring labors ply, 
'Gainst graver hours that biing constraint 

To sweeten liberty ; 
Some bold adventurers disdain 
The limits of their little reign, 

And unknown regions dare descry ; 
Still as they run they look behind, 
They hear a voice in every wind. 

And snatch a fearful joy. 



Gay hope is theirs by fancy fed. 

Less pleasing when possess'd ; 
The tear forgot as soon as shed, 

The sunshine of the breast : 
Theirs buxom health, of rosy hue ; 
Wild wit, invention ever new ; 

And lively cheer, of vigor born ; 
The thoughtless day, tlie easy night, 
The spirits pure, the slumbers light, 

That tiy th' approach of morn. 



Eton College. 55 

Alas! regardless of their doom, 

The little victims plr-y! 
No sense have they of ills to come, 

Nor care beyond to-day ; 
Yet see how all around them wait 
The ministers of human fate, 

And black misfortune's baleful train. 
Ah ! show them where in ambush stand, 
To seize their prey, the murd'rous baud; 

Ah! tell them they are men! 



These shall the fury passions tear, 

Tlie vultures of the mind. 
Disdainful anger, pallid fear. 

And shame that skulks behind; 
Or pining love shall waste their youth, 
Or jealousy with rankling tooth, 

That inly gnaws the secret heart ; 
And envy wan, and faded care, 
Grim-visaged, comfortless despair. 

And sorrow's piercing dart. 



Ambition tliis shall tempt to rise, 

Then whirl the wretch from high, 
To bitter scorn a sacrifice 

And grinning infamy. 
The stings of falsehood those shall try. 
And hard unkindness' altered eye, 

That mocks the tear it forced to How; 
And keen remorse, with blood defiled, 
And moody madness laugliing wild 

Amid severest woe. 



56 School-Boy Life in Mekkie England. 

Lo, in tlie vale of years benealh, 

A grisly troop are seen, 
The painful family of death, 

More hideous than their queen : 
This racks the joints, this tires the veins, 
That every laboring sinew strains, 

Those in the deeper vitals rage ; 
Lo, poverty to fill the band, 
That numbs the soul with icy hand 

And slow-consuming age. 

To each his sufferings ; all are men, 

Condemn'd alike to groan ; 
The tender for another's pain, 

Th' unfeeling for his own. 
Yet, ah I why should they know their fate ? 
Since sorrow never comes too late, 

And happiness too swiftly flics; 
Thought would destroy our paradise — 
No more; — where ignorance is bliss 

'Tis folly to be wise. 

The college was begun in IMO, fifty-eiglit years 
after the founding of Winchester school, by "William 
Waynflete, Bishop of Winchester, under the patron- 
age of Henr}^ YI., the Scholar King, and with the 
title of " the College of the Blessed Mary of Eaton 
beside Windsor." The buildings were completed in 
1523. Waynflete brought with him, we are told, 
-Rvc fellows and thirty-five scholars from Wykeham's 
College, and he organized the new foundation exactly 



Eton College. 5Y 

on the model of the older one. The charter of Eton 
provided that the master {informator) was to be a 
master of arts, and unmarried. His salary was to be 
24 marks (<£16=$80), with rooms, and an allowance 
of £4 6s. 8d. ($21 60) for commons. He had one 
gown a year, which he was forbidden to sell or 
pledge, and he was enjoined not to indulge in such 
fashionable vanities " as red, green, or white shoes." 

On the foundation there is provision for a provost, 
a head-master, and ten fellows, who constitute the 
governing body, two cliaplains, and seventy king's 
scholars, and there have been from three to nine 
hundred "oppidans" in attendance at various times 
since. Anciently there was also provision for ten clerks, 
sixteen choristers, and thirteen almsmen, for in those 
old times a place for the poor was provided in almost 
every public institution. The members of the gov- 
erning body are nominated by the universities of 
Oxford and Cambridge. The almsmen or pensioners 
were aged or infirm men who were unable to work. 
Before they could be admitted they must be able to 

y the Lord's Prayer and the Creed, and whenever 
diey went beyond the college walls they had to wear 
gowns. The almshouse ceased to exist in the life- 
time of the founder. The " fellows " of Eton were 



58 School-Boy Life in Merrie England 

priests who could if they chose spend all their days 
in study within the college, but were not allowed to 
marry. They, too, have been abolislied. The " col- 
legers," or king's scholars, reside within the school 
gates, and get their education at a nominal charge 
owing to the rich endowment funds. The " oppi- 
dans " are scholars who attend the school, enjoy all 
its honors and privileges, pay liberally for their tui- 
tion and board, and reside in the town. 

The seventy scholars '' on the foundation " were 
formerly elected annually, as vacancies occurred, to 
King's College, Cambridge, by the provost, vice- 
provost, and head-master of Eton and the provost and 
two fellows of King's College, who came down to 
Eton for the purpose late in July or early in August. 
Much pomp and ceremony were anciently observed 
on this occasion. " The two provosts used to meet 
at the college gates, and greet each other with the 
kiss of peace, even within present memory, and many 
other antique courtesies passed between the Eton and 
Cambridge electors." But nowadays the successful 
candidates for Cambridge are chosen by means of 
a strict competitive examination held in the uni- 
versity. 

The domestic side of Eton life is peculiar to itself. 



Eton College. 59 

The " collegers," as we have said, live at the school, 
where the study and bedroom are in one, each boy 
having liis own solitary apartment. For the conven- 
ience of the oppidans there are about twenty board- 
ing-houses kept by masters, and ten or a dozen others 
kept by '' Dames." Some of these boarding-houses 
have as few as half a score of youngsters, while in 
some of the houses there are as many as iifty. In 
these houses, too, the boys dine and spend their even- 
ings with the family. The advantages of this system 
must be apparent over against the " every man for 
himself" mode of life at Rugby. Oddly enough, 
the keeper of a boarding-house is called a " Dame," 
whether male or female ! 

The dormitories in the college are models of com- 
pactness and neatness. The Eton boy's room is em- 
phatically his castle. " The bed folds up very neatly 
and takes no room, the washing apparatus and the 
brushes and combs are put out of sight, a large cup- 
board contains table-cloths and tea-things, together 
with such supplies of additional dainties as the pocket 
of the occupant can afford. Often the table is cov- 
ered with books and adorned with flowers ; the man- 
tel-shelf has a fringe of his sister's handiwork and a 
few choice ornaments which remind him of liome. 



60 School-Boy Life in Merrie England. 

The walls are so covered with pictures that there is 
scarcely a square inch left, the post of honor being 
occupied by photographs of his own home and of ]iis 
nearest relations." Then follow pictures of " moving 
adventures by flood and field," the finish of a lonoj 
run to Hare and Hounds, the stage coach in a flood, 
a fishing or a boating scene, and a group of dogs or 
birds. Over the mantel orthodoxy requires that the 
Scliool Almanac be pasted, tlie rules of the school 
societies the boy belongs to, and a few visiting cards 
are stuck in the little mirror, while in divers nooks 
and on sundry pegs are scattered the numerous caps 
and hats of many and divers colors which he is en- 
titled to wear or has ever worn, his favorite cricket 
bat, the tiny pennant won by his boat in the last 
race, if he is a " Wet-bob," as well as tlie pewter 
"mngs" gained in athletic contests. 

From the very earliest date Eton seems to have been 
what it has remained down to the present — a nursery 
for the gentlemen of England. King Henry YII. 
was an Etonian. In the celebrated " Paston Letters," 
which were penned in the reign of the monarch just 
named, we are told that country gentlemen rode up 
from Norfolk to attend the school, " and Latin verses 
seem to have formed tlien, as they do now, the sum- 



Eton College. 61 

mit of the scholar's efforts toward distinction. It is 
therefore not uniitting that the effigy of the king to 
whom all Etonians owe so much should be one of 
the first objects presented to the sight of the new 
boj as he arrives at the school." The statue of the 
royal founder stands in the midst of the school- 
yard, the center of all the life and motion of the 
place. 

First and foremost let ns make a tour of the public 
buildings of Eton. On the right hand, looking up 
the school-yard, is the venerable gray chapel, pictur- 
esque and beautiful in its mellow old age. Large as 
it is (it will accommodate seven hundred boys), it 
was the plan of the founder to make it merely the 
chancel of a noble cathedral church. But his am- 
bitious designs were interrupted by civil war, and 
wall and buttress stood roofless for many years, until 
at length it w^as deemed best to complete the work 
on a more modest scale. Behind the statue of the 
founder is a low arch conducting into the cloisters. 
The clock-tower, containing a beautiful oriel window, 
dates from the time of the eighth Henry — a century 
later than the chapel. The oriel window here re- 
ferred to lights the " election-chamber ; " the row of 
windows on the left is that of the " election-hall," a 



62 SciiooL-BoY Life in Merrie England. 

private dining-room of tlie provost of Eton. These 
rooms are redolent of historic memories. Here Sir 
Henry Saville and Sir Henry Wotton lived and re- 
ceived their guests. Here Bacon, not long before 
his death, spent a few days " in such company as he 
loved," and conceived a wisli to spend the last days 
of his existence in the seclusion of these learned 
shades. Here Sir Henry Wotton, after serving his 
country as diplomat at nearly every court in Europe, 
at a time when men of affairs needed " an open brow 
and a closed mouth," receiv^ed a visit from the then 
youthful John Milton, who lived in the near-by vil- 
lage of Horton, praised the early efforts of his muse, 
and "gave that advice and wrote those introductions 
which were to start the young scholar on his foreign 
tour and fill his mind with rich and never-dying 
memories." 

The rooms of the Provost's Lodge are decorated 
with the portraits of many of Eton's noblest sons — 
embryo statesmen and soldiers, priests and poets, men 
of affairs or men of fashion — their boyish faces look- 
ing out at us from the canvas ere the " pale cast of 
thought" has put its liard impress upon them. This 
gallery of portraits extends in time over a century 
and a half, and pity 'tis that it should ever have been 



Eton College. 63 

interrupted. In them we read that Eton has always 
been " the chief nurse of England's statesmen." 

On the left of the " quad " — Etonian for quadrangle 
— opposite the chapel, is the building which formerly 
contained the Long Chamber, the dormitory of the 
seventy collegers, who may be styled the kernel of 
the school, the " oppidans " being in theory simply 
the private pupils of the head-master. Long Cham 
ber is now diverted from its former nse, and with it 
has passed away that old rough school-life which, 
disagreeable in the present and amusing in the retro- 
spect, is nevertheless now happily numbered with the 
things of long ago. Kare and racy are the stories of 
those old days — " of turning up in beds and tossing 
in blankets ; of midnight orgies confined to the upper 
boys, who were permitted any license themselves on 
the condition of restraining their younger compan- 
ions ; the stories round the chamber fire ; the tortur- 
ing of the Jews or of the unlucky oppidans whose 
fortunes led them to seek a place on the foundation ; 
the surreptitious theatricals, in which Queen Elizabeth 
reviewed her troops at Tilbury Fort, or where the 
lower boys, dressed as 'mutes, swallowed the liquids,' 
as Horace Walpole has informed us, or where the 
story of Jezebel was acted to the life, and the body 



64 Scno()L-T>oY Life in Merrie England. 

of the offending queen (personated by a ' small oppi- 
dan ') was ' tin-own down ' with violence onto the floor 
below. Rarely were these amusements interrupted, 
but when 'the Doctor' did intervene to stop the ir- 
regularities a friendly butler walked before rattling 
his ponderous bunch of keys, lest a sight too awful 
should meet the eyes of the offended chief." 

Rising over the Long Chamber, on the right of the 
clock tower, is the high-pitched roof of the college 
hall, now " resplendent with tapestried dais, stained- 
glass windows, richly ornamented gallery, and carved 
stone fire-places. In the body of the hall dine 
tlie seventy collegers ; at the high table preside the 
fellows. The portraits are those of collegers who 
have become famous in their country's service. 
Archbishop Sumner smiles blandly from between his 
lawn sleeves ; Earl Camden looks as grave and wise 
as an owl under his Lord Chancellor's cap ; and Lord 
Stratford de Redcliffe plants his foot haughtily on a 
carpet of Turkey red." 

The buttery and the cellars are well worth a visit, 
as is also the college kitchen, a noble room with a 
peculiar conical or funnel-shaped roof to carry off the 
steam and savor of a thousand dinners. " Here an 
ox may be roasted whole, and plum-j^uddings boiled 



Eton College. 65 

for the population of a good-sized town." In one 
corner of the cloisters stands the college pump, the 
beauty of whose w'ater is not to be surpassed. The 
houses round the court are the abodes of the Eton 
fellows, retired mastei's who here find a peaceful 
haven in old age. 

The school-yard is entered from the Slough Road 
by a passage under the Upper School, a long build- 
ing erected by Provost Godolphin in the reign of 
Queen Anne. "' It runs along the whole west side 
of the ^ quad,' and underneath it is a covered cloister 
which affords shelter to boys waiting for their lessons 
to begin, and an occasional retreat to football and fives 
players who have been driven in by stress of 
weather." The ITp23er School is a noble room, deco- 
rated with busts of sovereigns and statesmen. The 
walls are paneled with oak, and cut with the names of 
old Etonians. " Time was," we are told, " when boys 
cut their own names on the walls, but this is long 
past. Five or ten shillings secures the knife of the 
official carver, who hands down the youth's name to 
posterity accompanied by those of his competitors 
wdio leave at the same time as himself. In one 
panel there can be but little doubt that the mass- 
ive letters C + 1 4- FOX represent the handicraft of 
5 



G6 ScHOor-BoY Life in Merrie England. 

the statesman wliose bust smiles on us from above. 
It is interesting, also, to notice the number of well- 
known names which occur in this little space of the 
wall's surface — Chatham, Howe, Wellington, Can- 
ning, Hammond, Porson, and Gray are names of 
which any school may be proud." 

The " Library," as the head-master's room is called, 
leads out of the Upper School. This is where the 
Sixth Form (the highest) boys are taught. It is 
beautilully decorated, the walls being adorned with 
bas-reliefs depicting scenes from classic myth. Here, 
too, is the honor-roll of the Newcastle scholars, with 
the bust of the donor of the scholarship over all. 

Exactly under Long Chamber is the Lower School, 
running at right angles to the Upper School. The 
room dates from the sixteenth century, and is " the 
original home of Eton scholarship and learning." 
The architecture is heavy and anticpie, while the 
massive desks and seats are hacked and mutilated by 
the ruthless knives of generations of boys. 

But both Upper and Lower School have long been 
outgrown. What are known as the New Schools are 
in an imposing pile across the Slongh Ivoad, a Russian 
cannon, trophy of the Crimean War, standing sen- 
tinel-like outside the gates. These rooms are large, 



Eton College. G7 

light, and airy, provided with every modern appli- 
ance, inchiding a fine-toned pipe-organ for the use of 
sucli as wish to study music, an observatoi'y with a 
powerful telescope, and a chemical laboratory. 

Here is the order of the day's Ufe at Eton : Eirst 
comes " morning school " for half an hour, at seven 
in summer and half-past seven in winter. Breakfast 
occupies the next hour. Then there is a half-hour's 
chapel service, at which attendance is compulsory for 
all. '' Ten o'clock school " may be said to begin the 
studies of the day ; it continues from 9:45 to 10:30, 
and is immediately followed by " eleven o'clock 
school," which occupies the time till noon. Then 
comes a recess for the upper forms, called the " after 
twelve," but the lower school goes on with study 
until 1:30 or 2 o'clock. At the latter hour dinner is 
served for all. " After two " is a brief school session 
from 3 to 3:30, followed by a recess from 3:45 to 
4:15, called '' after four," when most of the boys go 
for a promenade on the High Street. '' Lock-up " in 
winter comes at five o'clock, which makes the even- 
ings to be spent in-doors in study and recreation very 
long. 

Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays are half-holi- 
days, and there are no studies on those days in the 



C8 School-Boy Life in Mekkie England. 

afternoons, the plaj-time being only interrupted by 
" absence," a roll-call or " calling over " similar to tlie 
Harrow " bill." Oddly enough, one says, is the name 
" absence " given to a ceremony at which every one 
must be present. Nobody knows w^hy or how the 
name originated. After three o'clock " absence " 
there is a general rush for the playing-fields and the 
river. The praepostors, or monitors, have to hunt up 
all boys who do not answer at " absence," and report 
the reason for their non-attendance. 

During the day, at times when school is not in ses- 
sion, the boys have the utmost liberty of action. 
They go and come as they please, the chief restriction 
being that they must be in their houses and then in 
their rooms by a definite hour. ^' Calling over " is at 
5 in winter and 8:45 in summer, when each master 
calls over the names of his boys. 

" The improvements carried out of late years in 
tlie buildings and other arrangements at Eton," says 
an old Etonian, " have been very great. The old 
schools were very close and inconvenient. But in tlie 
summer of 1863 a block of new buildings was com- 
pleted which contains thirteen class-rooms besides a 
music-room, with the entrances and staircases so ar- 
ranged as to avoid the crowding and confusion which 



Eton College. G9 

occasionally used to take place. The old Upper and 
Lower Schools remain unaltered — indeed, there are 
liistorical interests associated with their homely feat- 
ures which no Etonian would wish to see desecrated 
by any modern restorer. The latter room is still very 
much what it was in Queen Elizabeth's days. There 
yet remain the double row of ungainly oaken pillars 
which, by the singularity of their arrangement, gave 
rise to a tradition that the room had been originally 
the college stable. On the oaken ' shuts ' of the win- 
dows may still be read the names of the scholars 
carved as they w^ere elected to King's College, and 
which struck Pepys on his visit as so pretty a custom. 
On the farthest shutter are those of the election of 
1564, the chief authors of the poems which welcomed 
Queen Elizabeth in the previous year, while there are 
several of even earlier date." 

Fagging* at Eton is now merely nominal, except 
in the college and among the collegers. " The priv- 
ilege belongs to the Sixth Form and the whole of 
the Fifth, except the lowest division. These last hold 
a neutral position, and all below the Fifth, to the 
number of from four to six hundred, are fags. Un- 
like most other public schools, there is no fagging at 

*For the oriofin of ibis word see the Preface. 



TO SciiooL-BoY Life in Mi:rrie England. 

foot-ball or cricket. In the boarding-houses a fag has 
little more to do than bring up the kettle for his 
master's breakfast, boil his eggs, and toast his bread — 
which a slovenly lower- form boy is sometimes accused 
of doing over his lamp, as the most expeditious 
method of at least blackening it. The same services 
are required from him at tea ; and with the excep- 
tion of carrying an occasional message this is about 
the amount of work wdiich an oppidan fag has to do, 
and this only lasts until he gets into the Fifth Form, 
which many boys do now in their first or second 
year." 

We may mention here the form of punishment in- 
flicted on a careless fag by a Sixth Form boy which 
is peculiar to Eton, and in all probability dates from 
a very early period : " He sets the offender to com- 
pose an epigram in English, Greek, or Latin, at his 
option — usually of four lines. The amount of point 
required from the unwilling poet appears to be in- 
definite ; and these performances have probably suf- 
fered considerably in this respect, since one very 
tempting resource has been cut oif. It was usual for 
the author to turn such w^it as he might possess 
against the iinposer of the penalty — and, if fairly 
done, it was held perfectly lawful ; but this kind of 



Eton College. 71 

retaliation on tlie victim's part has long been fur- 
bidden." 

The number of pnpils enrolled at Eton is never 
constant, but fluctuates, owing to national or local 
causes; yet on tlie whole there has been a steady 
and sfradual increase from the earliest time to the 
present. The most ancient school-list in existence 
is for the year 1678, and contains 207 names. 
The bubble prosperity of the era of the South Sea 
Company ran the numbers up to 425, but when the 
speculation burst they fell back to 350. In the first 
year of the present century the school had 530 boys, 
and under the sway of Dr. Keate, whose reign lasted 
longer than that of any other head-master before or 
since — 1809-34 — the list was raised to 640. Dr. 
Hawtrey ran it up to 777, and " the three sevens " 
were during the decade 1847-57 a frequent toast 
amono; Etonians. The numbers are now over 900. 

Here are a few^ of the names of Etonians who rose 
to eminence in after years : William Ewart Glad- 
stone ; Henry Hallam, the historian ; Dean Milman ; 
Bisliop Pearson; Winthrop Mackworth Praed ; Ed- 
ward Bouverie Pusey; AVilliam Herbert, Dean of 
Mancliester ; Thomas Gray, the poet ; Nathaniel For- 
ster; Pliineas Fletcher and his brother Giles; 



72 School-Boy Life in Merrie England. 

Tlionias Do Quincey, the opium-eater ; Kinglake, the 
liistorian of the Crimea; Henry Nelson Coleridge, 
nepliew of Samnel Taylor Coleridge ; Henry St. 
John, Viscount Bolingbroke ; Robert Boyle, the 
philosopher ; the Earl of Bridge water, who founded 
the " Bridge water Treatises ; " Jacob Bryant ; Charles 
James Fox ; George Canning ; William Pitt, Earl of 
Chatham ; the Duke of Wellington and his brother, 
Lord Wellesley; Eichard Person, the marvelous 
Greek scholar ; the poet Shelley ; Sir Robert Wal- 
13ole, and Windham, the orator and statesman. This 
is only a partial list, yet it contains manj of the 
greatest names in England. 

A writer in one of the English magazines says, in 
speaking of various Eton worthies, that " the briefest 
notice of the Etonians of the eighteenth century 
would imply a biographical dictionary of half the 
distinguished names in Church and State. Foremost 
of such names should stand Horace Walpole ; sprung 
from an Etonian family, he was all his life an Etonian 
heart and soul. He was at Eton nearly seven years, 
being entered at ten years old, under Bland 'as head- 
master, in 1727, and leaving for King's College as a 
fellow-commoner in 1734. lie made many friendships 
there, marked by some of the fantastic romance of 



Eton College. Y3 

liis day. Gray was there with liim — quiet and stu- 
dious, reading Virgil for amusement in his play- 
liours, writing graceful Latin verses, and almost as 
fond of Eton as himself. With him and with Rich- 
ard West and Thomas Ashton, Horace formed the 
' quadruple alliance ' in which, like Sir William Jones 
and his friends at Harrow, they figured under heroic 
names, and appear to have ruled imaginary kingdoms. 
Walpole himself was Tydeus / Gray, Arosmades ; 
Ashton, Plato ; and West, Almanzor. Charles James 
Fox entered under Barnard in 1758. He was a troub- 
lesome and irregular pupil — ' more of a mutineer than 
a courtier,' says one of his contemporaries — yet he 
gave out flashes of ability from time to time. He 
had his father to thank for much irrational in- 
dulgence ; in the middle of his Eton careef he took 
the boy off to Paris and to Spa for four months. He 
came back to school, as might be expected, not at 
all improved, with all the fopperies and follies of a 
young man. Richard Porson was a contemporary of 
Lord Wellesley. It is more singular that the great 
scholar should have failed to earn any remarkable 
distinction there than that the future hero should 
have passed unnoticed. ' They thought nothing,' 
wrote one of his school-fellows, ' of the Norfolk boy ' 



74 SciiooL-BoY Life in Merrie England. 

(Person) who had coine tliere witli such an ahirniing 
reputation. But Person's early training was deficient, 
though his powers were great and his classical read- 
ing voracious. He w^as inaccurate in his prosody — 
a fatal defect at Eton — and his Latin verses, ahnost 
the only road to distinction then, were never remark- 
able. But he was a very popular boy, ready at all 
games and clever at school-boy satire, narrowly escap- 
ing the penalty of this dangerous gift in the shape of 
a tremendous thrashing from Charles Simeon, who, 
strange to say, was a fop at school. Porson addressed 
an ode to him as ' the ugliest boy in Dr. Davies's 
dominions;' but as he had written it with his left 
lijuul Simeon could never bring it home to him. He 
retained no great love for Eton in after life, perhaps 
feeling that he had liardly his fair share of success 
tliere. The onl}^ thing he recollected with pleasure, 
he once said, was the rat hunting in Long Chamber! " 
In a school of such extreme age one naturally 
expects to find many curious and quaint customs sur- 
viving from former years. Here is an account of 
the "Monteni" — more properly "Ad Montem " — 
one of the most peculiar and striking of old Eton 
usages, which is now a thing of the past, though 
never to be forgotten by any who liave assisted 



Eton College. Y5 

tliereat, whether as actors or spectators. " Montem " 
was a muster of the whole school. " in a sort of seini- 
military array, with band and colors, to march out to 
a mound in a field about a mile and a half distant — 
the well-known Salt Hill — where an ensign waved 
Iiis flag, the boys cheered, and the ceremony so far 
was over. The professed object was to collect from 
the crowds of visitors who were always gathered on 
the occasion contributions of money, called salt^ to 
supply the captain of the day, the head colleger, 
with funds for his Cambridge expenses. For this 
purpose two salt-bearers, usually the second in senior- 
ity of the collegers and the captain of the oppidans, 
assisted by some ten or twelve runners or servitors, 
and all dressed in fancy costumes, scoured all the ap- 
proaches to Windsor and Eton within the shire of 
Buckingliam — for the collection of 'salt' was con- 
fined, for some traditionary reason, to those limits — 
and levied contributions, by a sort of civil compul- 
sion, from every comer, from the nobleman in his 
carriage-and-four to the rustic on foot. The cry was 
' Salt ! Salt ! ' for which embroidered bao^s were held 
forth, and any thing w\as accepted, from a sixpence 
to a lifty pound note. In return the donor received 
a little blue ticket with a Latin motto on it — Mos 



76 SciiooL-BoY Life in Mp:erie England. 

jpro Lege, or 3fore et Monte — and this ticket worn in 
the hat, or otherwise shown, protected the bearer for 
the rest of the day from any further demand." 

Royalty generally graced this occasion. For nearly 
forty years George Third was present and regularly 
dropped " salt " to the amount of fifty pounds into 
the bag. The origin of this peculiar school festival is 
obscure. " The Winchester statutes (which were 
adopted for Eton in almost every particular) made 
provision for the out-door exercise of the scholars, by 
a daily procession ad Montem to St. Catherine's Hill, 
outside the city walls, which is still known as 'going 
on hills,' and takes place there regularly on half-holi- 
days ; and from this there can be little doubt that the 
term itself was borrowed." 

But so many abuses grew out of the old custom, 
and so much license prevailed, that it was finally 
abolished. Prince Albert was present at the last cel- 
ebration, in 1844. His carriage was halted on Wind- 
sor Bridge, and he gave the salt-bearer the royal do- 
nation of £100. 

" Since the glories of Montem have departed," says 
the old Etonian before quoted, " the fourth of June 
has taken its place as the great yearly festival of 
Etonians. It was instituted in commemoration of a 



Eton College. 77 

visit of King George Third, and is held on his birth- 
day. It is the great trjsting day of Eton, when her 
sons gather from far and wide, young and old, great 
and small ; no matter who or what, so long as they 
are old Etonians — that magic bond binds them all to- 
gether as brothers, and levels for the time all distinc- 
tions of age or rank. The proceedings begin with 
speeches delivered in the upper school at 12 noon 
before the provost, fellows, masters, and a large audi- 
ence of the boys' friends. Selections from classical 
authors, ancient or modern, are recited by the Sixth 
Eorm boys, w^ho are dressed for the occasion in black 
swallow-tail coats, white ties, black knee-breeches and 
buckles, silk stockings and pumps. Then follows the 
provost's luncheon, given in the college hall, to the 
more distinguished visitors, while similar entertain- 
ments on a smaller scale are going on in the vari- 
ous ^ houses.' At 3 o'clock there is a full choral 
service in chapel. At 6 P. M. all hands adjourn to 
the Brocas, a large open meadow, to witness the great 
event of the day — the procession of the boats to 
Surly Hall, a public-house of that name on the right 
bank of the river, some three and a half miles from 
Windsor. The boats are divided into tM^o classes — 
upper and lower. The upper division consists of the 



T8 School-Boy Life in Merrie England. 

j\lonarch^ ten-oar, the Yictory^ and the Prince of 
^Yales^ or, as it is more usually called, the third up- 
per. The lower boats are the Britannia^ Dread- 
naughty Thetis^ and St. George. Sometimes, when 
the number of aspirants for a place is larger than 
usual, an eighth boat, called the Defiance^ is added. 
The collegers also put on an eight-oar. The flotilla 
is preceded by the Eton racing eight-oar, manned by 
the picked crew who are to contend at Putney or 
Jleidey. Each boat has its distinctive uniform. For- 
merly these w^ere very fanciful — Greek pirates, galley 
slaves in silver chains, and other grotesque figui'es, 
astounding the quiet reaches of the Thames for the 
day. The crews of the upper boats now wear dark 
blue jackets and trousers, and straw hats with rib- 
bons displaying the name of the boats in gold letters. 
The cockswains are dressed in an admiral's uniform 
with gold fittings, sword, and cocked hat. The cap- 
tain of each boat has an anchor and crown embroid- 
ered in gold on the left sleeve of his jacket. In the 
lower boats the crews wear trousers of white jean, 
and all ornaments and embroidery are in silver. 
Each boat carries a laro^e silk flasr in the stern. The 
procession is headed by a quaint, old-fashioned boat, 
(an Eton racing boat of primitive days) rowed by 



Eton College. 79 

Thames watermen and conveying a military band. 
The scene at Bovenly Lock is very striking, for here 
the shells with their gay crews are massed in the nar- 
row channel. Opposite to Surly Hall a liberal dis- 
pkiy of good things, spread on tables on shore, awaits 
the arrival of the crews — the Sixth Form alone beinn^ 
accommodated with a tent. After a few toasts and 
as much champagne as can be disposed of in a short 
time, the captain of the boats gives the word for all 
to re-embark, and the flotilla returns to Eton ifi the 
sanjc order. This order, however, is by no means 
such as would delight the eye of a critical naval 
lieutenant — singing, shouting, racing, bumping, all 
go on together in tlie most harmonious confusion. 

" The time-honored custom of ' sitting a boat ' must 
here claim mention. Some old Etonian of generous 
and festive disposition (generally an ' old one ') sig- 
nifies to the captain of a boat his intention of pre- 
senting the crew with a certain quantity of cham- 
pagne. In return he is entitled to be rowed up to 
Surly in the boat to which lie presents the wine — he 
occupies the cockswain's seat, who kneels or stands 
behind him. This giver of good things is called from 
this circumstance a ' sitter.' And tlie question, ' Who 
sits your boat?' or, 'Have you a sitter?' is one of 



80 School-Boy Life in Merkie England. 

some interest wliicli may be often lieard addressed to 
a captain. Tlie seat of honor in the ten-oar is 
usually offered to some distinguished old Etonian. 
Canning occupied it in 1824. The boats, after their 
return through Windsor Bridge, turn and row two 
or three times round an eyot in the middle of the 
stream above the bridge. During this time a grand 
display of fireworks takes place on the eyot. The 
ringing of the fine old bells in the curfew tower, 
the cheering of the crews, and the brilliant colored 
fires which strike across the water and light up the 
dense masses of spectators along the bridge, the 
rafts, and the shore, produce an effect not easily for- 
gotten." 

Another curious Eton custom, of a more cruel 
character than the Montem, and w^isely abolished at 
a much earlier date, was the " Hunting of the Eain." 
The college butcher was, we are told, under some 
ancient unwritten law, obliged to provide a ram an- 
nually to be hunted by the scholars on election Satur- 
day. " On one occasion," says the chronicler, " the un- 
fortunate animal swam the river, and rushed into the 
crowded market-place at Windsor w^ith the boys in full 
chase ; and so much mischief and confusion was the 
consequence that the hunting was given up ; but the 



Eton College. 81 

victim was still provided, and dispatched by a process 
quite as cruel, and which had not even the excuse of 
the popular excitement of a chase. After being ham- 
strung to prevent his escape, he was knocked on the 
head in the school-yard with clubs specially provided 
for the occasion." 

But there is still a relic of the ancient times in 
vogue at Eton which impresses the stranger as being 
quite as singular as either of the foregoing. This is 
the whipping-block. Tlie ancient disciplinary instru- 
ment was carried off by that mad prank, the late 
Marquis of Waterford, some fifty years ago. Its 
successor stands in the torture-chamber, but is not so 
frequently used as the old one. The times have 
changed, and so have the manners of Eton boys. 
"When a culprit is to be birched he is brought hither, 
and a call is made for First Form boys — termed "hold- 
ers down." " The two who arrive last on the scene 
pay the penalty of their tardiness by being required 
to hold the offender down over the block while the 
master administers the switching." Dr. Keate on 
one occasion flogged more than eighty boys, which was 
the cause of the "rape of the block" above referred 
to. One morning a lot of offenders were sent up to 

his room to be flogged, but the block had disap- 
6 



82 School-Boy Life in Mkrrie England. 

peared, and so had the birch. Three of the more 
daring spirits managed to get the block out in the 
dead of night, and shipped off to London, where for 
a long time it was used as the seat of the President 
of the Eton Block Club, to which nobody could be- 
long who had not been birched three times at Eton. 

From its peculiar constitution Eton is virtually 
divided into two schools, consisting of the handful of 
king's scholars on the one hand, and the oppidans on the 
other. For all practical purposes, however, they are 
one, especially when it comes to repelUng a common 
enemy, or on the occasions of the boat-races at Hen- 
ley or the annual cricket match at Lord's. "The 
jealousy between collegers and oppidans," says an old 
Etonian, 'Svas at one time very strong, and led to 
a very repreliensible amount of ill-feeling. It seems 
to have Jbeen at its height about thirty or forty years 
ago. There w^as, of course, some difference of social 
position between the tw^o classes in many individual 
cases ; but this has never been sufficient to account of 
itself for the superiority assumed by the oppidans; 
for there have always been among the king's scholars 
many boys of good and w^ell-known family. The 
snow-balling fights between the two bodies had more 
earnest than sport in them ; and in these the col- 



Eton College. 83 

legers' gowns served them as shields, and gave the.u 
a better chance of holding their own against superior 
numbers. At present, the great struggle is at the 
annual foot-ball match 'at the wall,' upon St. An- 
drew's Day, between tlte picked elevens of each 
body. In this fierce contest a good deal of spite is 
shown — more than in the most savage days of the 
Sixtli Form match at Rugby — and the chaff is fast 
and furious. If the collegers gain the victory, pru- 
dence generally counsels a retreat as soon as possible 
into their own fastnesses (especially for the younger 
boys, who have been cheering on their champions) in 
order to escape vengeance from the overwhelming 
numbers of the irate oppidans," who outnumber them 
nearly ten to one. But on the whole the relations 
between the two bodies have been peaceable, if not 
very cordial, in daily intercourse, and though it is 
still " almost a natural thing for a small oppidan to 
dislike a small colleger," yet as the boys rise into the 
higher forms this juv^enile trait wears off. Here, then, 
we see the animosity of " school" and " town " raging 
between scholars of the same school instead of, as at 
Rugby, between the "school" and the "louts." 

Eton has been peculiarly fortunate in the choice of 
head-masters. The present incumbent, the Rev. E. 



84 School-Boy Life in MerPwIe England. 

Warre, is the sixty-tliird in the succession, dating 
from William Wayuflete. Among the most distin- 
guished was Richard Coxe (1528-35), whom Cranmer 
afterward made tutor to Edward VI. He caused 
scandal by being the first to bring a wife to live 
within the walls of the college. He subsequently 
became Bishop of Ely. Nicholas Udall, his suc- 
cessor, oddly enough, combined his collegiate duties 
with those of stage manager to Queen Elizabeth's 
private theatricals at Windsor ! Udall also fell under 
the unpleasant suspicion of conspiring with two of 
the collegers to purloin the college plate, but he 
seems to have silenced his traducers, for he afterward 
was promoted to be head-master of Westminster 
School. 

Dr. Barnard, who became head-master in 1754, is 
famed as the most spirited and successful master of 
the eighteenth century. He it was who " birched 
the conceit out of Charles James Fox," and put down 
foppery among the boys by cutting off their cues and 
forbidding the wearing of ruffled shirts. Dr. Joseph 
Goodall, whose sway began in 1801, ruled the school 
for nine years, and then became provost for thirty 
years more. The income of the head-master of Eton 
is not less than $15,000 a year. 



Eton College. 85 

A list of tlie provosts and masters from the foun- 
dation to the present, with other matter, will be 
found at the conclusion of this chapter. 

"Anecdotes of Keate's day abound in all Eton mem- 
ories. Practical jokes were more common then than 
now, and there was perhaps an additional enjoyment 
of them by Keate's pupils from the certain explosion 
of rage which they called forth from him when dis- 
covered. A young nobleman, disguised in an old 
gown and cocked-hat, so as to present by moonlight a 
passable likeness of the Doctor, painted Keate's door 
a bright red one night before the eyes of the college 
watchman, who stood looking on at a respectful dis- 
tance, wondering what the Doctor could be at, but 
not daring to question his right to do as he pleased 
with his own. Among other forbidden indulgences 
in the school Keate had thought proper to include 
umbrellas, which he regarded as signs of modern ef- 
feminacy. Boys are perverse ; and when to the com- 
fort of an umbrella was added the spice of unlawful- 
ness it became a point of honor with some of the 
larger boys to carry one. The Doctor harangued his 
own division on the subject in his bitterest style, and 
ended by expressing his regret that Etonians had de- 
generated into school-girls. The next night a party 



86 School-Boy Life in Merkie England. 

made an expediLioii to the neigliboring village of 
Upton, took down a large board inscribed in smart 
gilt letters, ' Seminary for Young Ladies,' and fixed 
it up over the great west entrance into the school- 
yard, where it met Keate's angry eyes in the morn- 
ing. He had also declared war against a fashion, 
creeping in a]nong the swells of those days, of sport- 
ing-cut coats and breeches with brass buttons, which 
he denounced as against the statutes. One morning 
several boys appeared in school in knee-breeches ex- 
temporized out of flannel, which they defended as 
strictly statutable. 

" But few stories of that day are complete without 
a flogging. It is said that on one occasion, when a 
confirmation was to be held for the school, each 
master was requested to make out and send in a list 
of candidates in his own foi'ni. One of them wrote 
down the names on the first piece of paper which 
came to hand, which happened unluckily to be one 
of the slips, of well-known size and shape, used as 
flogging-bills, and sent up regularly with the names 
of delinquents for execution. The list was put into 
Keate's hands without explanation ; he sent for the 
boys in the regular course, and in spite of all pro- 
testations on their part, pointing to the master's 



Eton College. 87 

signature to the fatal bill, tlogged them all (so the 
story goes) there and then. Another day a culprit 
who was due for punishment could not be found, 
and the Doctor was kept waiting on the scene of 
action for some time in a state of considerable exas- 
peration. In an evil moment for hiuiself a name- 
sake of the defaulter passed the door ; he was seized 
at once by Keate's order, and brought to the block 
as a vicarious sacrifice ! Such legends may not 
always bear the strictest investigation, but they 
have at least the sort of truth which some Eo- 
manist writers claim for certain apocryphal Acta 
Sanctoricm — they show what sort of deeds were 
done." * 

The sports in vogue at Eton are rowing, cricket, 
foot-ball, and fives — named in the order of their 
present popularity. Boating has for many genera- 
tions been one of the most popular amusements, the 
site affording facilities which no other public school 
save Westminster can boast. Swimming, too, has 
long held an honored place among Eton accomplish- 
ments. Out of the fact that Eton and Westminster 
are the only two schools situated on a noble river 
grew up a rivalry in rowing that extended also to 

* Eioninna, Ancient and Modern, Lucas Collins. 



88 School-Boy Life in Mekrie England. 

scholarship, and there is always more or less emulation 
between the schools. 

'' Modern Eton has gone far afield, and its sons are 
seen and their merry laugh is heard over all the sur- 
rounding counti'y. Up the river, nearly as far as 
Maidenhead, the stream is covered with their boats, 
and nearer to Eton the banks swarm with their naked 
forms as they take ' headers ' or ' f ootei's ' into the 
water. The fields which surround the school, hap- 
pily for Etonians, are all common land, and are ap- 
propriated for foot-ball in winter and for cricket in 
summer, as these tw^o games have far outgrown the 
space originally ^^rovided for tliem in tlie playing 
fields. The roads echo to the tread of the Eton Yol- 
unteers, the fields are scoured by the beagles and 
huntsmen of the Eton College Hunt, and a fellow 
of three hundred years ago would find it hard to rec- 
ognize, in the free and active crowd who have seized 
upon the surrounding country for their amusements, 
the close-guarded knot of students who were confined 
strictly to the college grounds." 

During the summer iialf-year, says an old Etonian, 
" cricket is a formidable rival to the attractions of the 
river. Like rowing, it requires a good deal of time 
and practice, and few boys excel in both. In fact, 



Eton College. 89 

the school is divided into Wet-bobs and Diy-bobs, as 
they are called, the former devoting themselves to 
the boats and the latter to the playing fields. Of 
course, a Dry-bob boats occasionally, and a Wet-bob 
plays cricket for amusement, but each lays himself 
out for excellence in his special line. Apart from 
cricket and foot-ball, the only game now recognized 
is fives. The more juvenile amusements have long 
been voted beneath the dignity of a public -school 
boy — a fastidiousness of taste which does not, per- 
haps, increase the happiness of the little boys. They 
played marbles at Eton as late as 1821, and tops 
survived many years longer, being regularly intro- 
duced for some ten days after the return of the school 
from the summer holidays until about 1835." But 
these " baby games " are now tabooed. 

The game of " fives " — a species of hand-ball, 
though resembling in some features the game of 
tennis as anciently played — is peculiar to Eton, and 
its origin is both curious and interesting. The game 
lias been played in England and France since the 
ourteenth century, and is so named from the fact 
that three fives^ or fifteen^ are counted as making 
game. The spot where fives is played at Eton is 
where the steps from the school chapel descend into 



90 SciiooL-BoY Life in Merrie England. 

the " quad," and come down on a broad landing- 
place, to the left of which is one of the bays between 
the buttresses anciently intended to support the stone 
groined roof of the chapel. The balustrade on one 
side of the staircase here comes to an abrupt end, and 
below the step where it finishes is the hole of a drain. 
'' In this space, so curiously defined by mere accident, 
the game known as ' Eton fives ' has grown up, 
and wherever else that game is played the same pe- 
culiarities are faithfully reproduced. There is also a 
string-course on a slope, which has some effect on the 
chances of the ball, and each one of these peculiarities 
must be copied with the utmost nicety unless the 
game is to be a failure." At Rugby and at Oxford 
fives courts have been constructed similar in every 
respect to the parent court at Eton. 

Eton was the first public school to start a magazine 
of its own — The Microcosm.^ founded in 1786. But 
it lived only two years, and not till sixteen years 
later did its successor appear — The Miniature. It 
too was short-lived. But in 1821 The Etonian came, 
and came to stay for several years. Then there were 
The Eton Miscellany^ The Oppidan^ and many 
others. The columns of all of these, of course, were 
filled by the boys themselves, and many a pen after- 



Eton College. 91 

ward famous was Urst employed in these youtliful 
literary enterprises. Foremost among these young 
journalists in recent years were Praed, H. N. Cole- 
ridge, Gladstone, Hallam, and Doyle. 

" Too many Etonians of the highest promise," says 
Mr. Collins, '* have passed away before their full devel- 
opment. Foremost of these is Winthrop Mackworth 
Praed, who died at the early age of thirty-seven, and 
whose name is even now less generally honored than 
it deserves to be. Many of his poems have a grace 
and beauty which have never been surpassed by any 
English writer, while his personal character, both in 
boyhood and in manhood, made him as warinly loved 
by those who knew him as he was admired for the 
brilliancy of his powers. But Praed's sun went down 
in its brightness. 

" It was not so with one of his fellow Etonian 
writers of perhaps even greater ability, though of 
less attractive personal qualities. William Sydney 
Walker, Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge, one 
of the most remarkable among Eton's many wonder- 
ful scholars, has left even less of a popular name 
and far more melancholy recollections behind him. 
Possibly the very precocity of his genius in boyhood 
was either the symptom or the cause of that morbid 



92 School-Boy Life in Merkie England. 

mental excitement which made his life a useless one. 
Before he was sent to Eton he liad read history ex- 
tensively at live years old. At Eton the feats of gen- 
ius recorded of him would seem quite as apocryphal 
if they were not formally vouched for by living wit- 
nesses. He could repeat the whole of Homer, Hor- 
ace, and Yii-gil by heart, says an Eton witness before 
the Royal Connnission ; and not only that, but he 
could be called up in school, having an English 
Shakespeare in his hand instead of the proper book, 
and take up a lesson anywhere that it might be going 
on ; he could construe a passage expression by expres- 
sion, parse it word by w^ord, answer any question that 
was asked him, and afterward sit dow^n to his Shakes- 
peare. 

" Some one once told Sir James Mackintosh that 
Walker could turn any thing into Greek verse. Sir 
James proposed a page of the Court Guide, and it 
was done. To such a boy, of course, the usual pen- 
alties of lines from a Greek or Latin poet to learn by 
heart were no punishments at all ; so that when his 
peculiar powers had been once discovered Greek 
verses were set him instead. He had many of the 
unpleasant habits of genius — slovenly, absent, ill- 
tempered, awkward, and odd, he was not happy at 



Eton College. 93 

Eton. He was the subject of considerable bullying 
in those days of rougher school-life, and would some- 
times even rush into the masters' rooms to escape 
from his tormentors. It has been said that these 
boyish sufferings injured his health and broke his 
spirit, and that much of the mental unhappiness of 
his after life was the consequence." 

Eton College is essentially the seminary for the 
sons of the nobility and gentry of England. In this 
respect it outdoes Harrow. But though the tone of 
the school and the somewhat expensive mode of living 
in vogue among the oppidans virtually prohibit the 
sons of poor parents from entering there, unless as 
king's scholars, yet the social atmosphere is healthy, 
free from snobbery and toadyism, and somewhat 
democratic. 

To hecome an Etonian is the ambition of many an 
English lad ; to he an Etonian, the scholars themselves 
think, with that pride and belief in " Ours " which is 
such an incentive and aid to esprit de corps, is all that 
a boy can desire ; to have heen an Etonian, and a 
credit to the school, is often a passport to success in 
manhood, and a never-failing source of pleasant 
memories. 



94 



bClIOOL- 



Boy Life in Merrie England. 



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Eton College. 



95 



PBOVOSTS OF ETON COLLEGE SINCE THE EOUNDA- 
'i'lON. 



Henry Sever 1441 

William Wayntlete 1442 

John Clerk 1447 

William Westbury 1447 

Henry Bost 1477 

Eoger Lupton 1503 

Robert Aldricli, or Aldridge 1536 

Sir Thomas Smith, Kt 1547 

Henry Cole 1554 

William Bill 1559 

WilU.mDay 1561 

Sir Henry Savile, Kt 1596 

Thomas Murray 1621 

Sir Henry Wotlon, Kt 1624 

Richard Stewart 1639 

Francis Rous 1643 

Nicholas Lockyer 1658 



Nicholas Monk, brother of 
celebrated General, after- 
ward Duke of Albemarle. 1660 

John Meredith 1661 

Richard AUestree 1665 

Zacharias Cradock 1680 

Henry Godolphin 1695 

Henry Bland 1.732 

Stephen Sleech 1746 

Edward Barnard 1765 

William Hay ward Roberts. 1781 

Jonathan Da vies 1791 

Joseph Goodall 1809 

Francis Hodgson 1840 

Edward Craven Hawtrey. . 1853 

Charles Old Goodford 1862 

James John Hoinby 1884 



HEAD-MASTERS OF ETON FROM 1660. 



Tliomas Montague 1660 

John Roswell 1672 

Charles Roderick 1682 

John Newboroiigh 1693 

Andrew Snape 1713 

Henry Bland 1720 

William George 1728 

AVilliam Cooke 1743 

John Sumner 1745 

Edward Barnard 1754 



John Foster 1765 

Jonathan Davies 1773 

George Heath 1792 

Joseph Goodall 1802 

JolmKeate 1809 

Edward Craven Hawtrey. . 1834 

Charles Old Goodford 1853 

Edward Balston 1862 

James John Hornby 1868 

Edmond Warro 1 884 



06 



School-Boy Life in Merrie England. 



LO^WER MASTERS OF ETON FROM 1660. 



Jolm Price 

Thomas Home. . 
Robert Young. . . 
Richard Marty n. 



1660 

1663 

1670 

1672 

Charles Roderick 1676 

John Newborough 1682 

Stephen Weston 1693 

Thomas Carter 1 705 

Barnham Goode 1717 

John Sumner 1734 

Tliomas Dampier 1745 

Henry Sleech 1767 



William Laugford 

John Keate 

George Thackeray , 

Tiiomas Carter 

Charles Yonge 

Henry Hart ipp Knapp. . . , 

George Jolm Dupuis 

Richard Okes , 

Edward Coleridge , 

William Adolphus Carter. . 
Francis Edward Durnford, 
James Leigh Joynes 



1775 
1802 
1809 
1814 
1829 
1830 
1834 
1838 
1850 
1857 
1864 
1878 




ST. PAUL'S SCHOOL 

il^otto : 

"DOCE, DISCE, AUT DISCEDE." 
7 



St. Paulas School 




NDER the shadow of Sir 
Christopher Wren's cathedral 
stands one of those famons 
Free Schools wliose founding 
marked the revival of learning 
England which signalized the earl}'' 
years of the sixteenth century. Its founder 
was Dr. John Colet, Dean of St. Paul's 
Cathedral, who endowed the institution in 
1512 for 153 boys " of every nation, country, and 
class," in memory of the number of fishes taken by 
Peter.* But there are now 500 boys at the school, 
besides 900 other scholars elsewhere. 

Tlie founder of St. Paul's School ordained that 
each boy was to pay "once for ever " four pence when 
admitted to the institution, which sum was to be 
given to the '^ poor scholar " who swept the school 

* John xxi, 11. 



100 School-Boy Life in Mekrie England. 

and kept the seats clean. " The hours of study were 
to be from seven until eleven in the morning, from 
one till live in the afternoon, with prayers morning, 
noon, and night." Another stipulation was that the 
pupils must never use tallow candles, but only wax 
ones, and these at the cost of their friends. It was 
further ordained that on Childermas Day the Pauli- 
cians were to attend the neighboring cathedral and 
hear a sermon by the boy-bishop, and each one was 
to make offering of a penny to the little preacher. 

The custom of choosing a boy from a cathedral 
choir on St. Nicholas Day, the sixth of December, as 
a mock bishop, was a very ancient and wide-spread 
custom. The boy possessed episcopal honor and dig- 
nity for three weeks, and the rest of the choir were 
his prebends. If he died during his prelacy he was 
buried with pontifical honors. The odd observance 
doubtless had reference to our Saviour's sitting in the 
temple among the doctors when a boy. The custom 
gave rise to many abuses, and was finally abolished in 
1542 by Henry Eighth. 

The first buildings were erected about 1509-12. 
It seems to have been a magnificent structure for 
those days and the use to which it was to be put. 
The school-room was divided by a curtain, as at West- 



St. Paul's School. 101 

minster. Over the head-master's chair was a statue 
of the Holy Child in the act of teaching, which all 
the scholars saluted with a hymn on going and return- 
ing. Every class had a seat a little higher than the 
others, which was reserved for the head-boy. This 
early building shared the fate of Mei'chant Taylors' 
school in the great fire of 1666, being totally de- 
stroyed. 

It was rebuilt by Sir Christopher Wren in 1670, 
and stood until 1824, when it was pulled down, and 
the noble pile was erected which still serves the 
purposes for which it was built. But the needs of 
the institution calling for more space, a site was 
purchased at West Kensington in 1878, whereat a 
modern school for 500 boys and a high school for 
400 girls were instituted. 

Over the master's seat in the old school is the 
legend, Intendas animum studiis et rebus honestis, 
and over the entrance to the room is the motto, Doce^ 
Disce, aut Discede, which is also found at Win- 
chester and other public schools. 

St. Paul's is wholly a day-school. There are con- 
sequently no dormitories, and no fagging, in this lat- 
ter respect resembling Merchant Taylors'. The 
modern hours of study are not so long as those pre- 



102 School-Boy Life in Mekrie England. 

scribed by the founder, being now limited to six 
daily— from 9 A. M. till 1 P. M., and from 2 to 4 
P. M. The dinner hour occurs between 1 and 2, 
and there are quarter-hour intermissions between the 
various classes. 

Being restricted for space, the opportunities for 
games and sports at the city school are extremely lim- 
ited. The playground is a paved cloister under the 
school-room, 67 feet by 34. The Kensington school 
is much better off in this respect, and on Saturdays 
and half holidays the boys play cricket at Kensington 
Oval, the governors paying a handsome sum yearly 
for the privilege. 

The school is in session about forty weeks in the 
year. The chief absences are six weeks at midsum- 
mer, four weeks at Christmas, and a week at Whit- 
suntide. Tliere are also holidays on Shrove Tuesday, 
Ash Wednesday, the Queen's birthday, Coronation 
Day, Founder's Day, the Fifth of November (Guy 
Fawkes Day) and Lord Mayor's Day, (November 
9th). 

There are one or two curious customs at St. Paul's 
deserving of mention. 

As has been said, there is no fagging, and the 
monitors or prefects (the whole of the eighth class) 



St. Paul's School. 103 

have no power to inflict punishment, their sole power 
being to stand a boy in the middle of the room so 
that the master's attention may be drawn to him. 
The masters alone may inflict punishment, which 
must never exceed a hundred lines of an imposition, 
nor six blows with a cane upon tlie hand. 

" On occasions when the sovereigns of England or 
other royal or distinguished persons pass in state 
through the " city," a balcony is erected in front of 
St. Paul's School, whence addresses from the scholars 
are presented to the illustrious visitors by the head 
boys. The origin of this right or custom of the 
Paulicians is not known, but is of some antiquity. 
Addresses were so presented to Charles Fifth and 
Henry Eighth, in 1552, to Queen Elizabeth, in 1558, 
and to Queen Victoria, when the Royal Exchange 
was opened in 1844. Her majesty, however, pre- 
ferred to receive the address at the next levee, and 
this precedent was followed w^hen the multitudes of 
London rushed to welcome the Prince of Wales and 
Princess Alexandra in 1863. 

"A pleasing trait in the character of Samuel 
Pepys" (who was a Paulician), says Mr. Staunton, " is 
his attachment to St. Paul's School. On the 9th 
January, 1059, we find him ' up early to look over 



104 School-Boy Life in Merrie England. 

and correct his brother John's speech for tlie next 
Apposition.' On the Yth of the succeeding Feb- 
ruary he visits the school, ' where he that made tlie 
speech for the seventh form in praise of the Founder 
did shew a book which Mr. Crumhim [Cromlehohne] 
liad lately got, which he believed to be of the 
Founder's own writing. My brother John,' records 
Pepys affectionately, ^ came off as well as any of the 
rest in the speeches.' He notes continually his acci- 
dental meetings, or set drinking parties, with his old 
school-fellows, and having recorded a visit ' in the 
Lord Admiral's coach to Mercers' Hall,' 22d January, 
1661, adds, ' It pleased me much to come in this 
condition to this place, where I was once a petitioner 
for my exhibition in Paul's School.' On the 23d 
December in the same year, ' Lighting at my book- 
seller's, in St. Paul's churchyard, I met there wdth 
Mr. Crumlum and the second master of Paul's 
School, and thence I took them to "The Starr," and 
there we sat and talked,' etc. Pepys here promised 
his old preceptor to make a present to the school of 
any book he would choose up to the value of 5Z., and 
in performance of this engagement paid about 
twelve months later '4Z. 10^. for Stephen's 
Thesaurus Grcecce Liiigum, given to Paul's School.' 



St. Paul's School. 105 

On the following 4tli February (1662), lie records, 
'To Paules Schoole, it being Apposition-day there. 
I heard some of their speeches, and they were just 
as school-boys used to be, of the seven liberal sciences, 
but I think not so good as ours were in our time.' 
After a short business call in the neighborhood, 
' back again to Paul's Schoole, and went up to see 
the head forms posed in Latin, Greek, and Hebrew ; 
but I think they do not answer in any so well as we 
did, only in geography they did pretty well. . . . 
So down to the School, where Mr. Crumlum did me 
much honour by telling many what a present I had 
made to the School, showing my Stephanus in four 
volumes. He also showed us, upon my desire, an old 
edition of the grammar of Colett's, where his epistle 
to the children is very pretty ; and in rehearsing the 
Creed it is said, " borne of the cleane Virgin Mary." 
On the dth February, 1663-4, Pepys went once 
more " To Paul's Schoole, and up to hear the upper 
form examined ; and there was kept by very many of 
tlie Mercers, Clutterbucke, Barker, Harrington, and 
tilers, and with great respect used by all, and had a 
noble dinner.' On 9th March, 1665, Pepys was 
again ' at Paul's Schoole, where,' he adds, ' I visited 
Mr. Crumlum at his house, and Lord ! to see how 



106 School-Boy Life in Merrie England. 

ridiculous a conceited pedagogue lie is, though a 
learned man, he being so dogmatical in all he do and 
says. But among other discourse we fell to the old 
discourse of Paule's Schoole, and he did, upon mj 
declaring my value of it, give me one of Lilly's 
grammars of a very old impression, as it was in the 
Catholique times, which I shall much set by.' 
During the great fire of London, 2d-7tli September, 
1666, our diarist 'saw all the towne burned, and a 
miserable sight of PauFs Church, with all the roofs 
fallen, and the body of the quire fallen into St. 
Fayths; Paul's School also, Ludgate and Fleet 
Street.' " 

John Milton — patriot, scholar, and poet — was born 
in Bread Street, within a few yards of the school 
that "made a man of him," and he sleeps his last 
sleep almost beneath the shadow of the cathedral's 
dome, in the chancel of the parish church of St. 
Giles, Cripplegate. 

To Americans St. Paul's School must possess pe- 
culiar interest from the fact that it was the place 
where the unfortunate Major Andre was educated. 
None of the great public schools possess a greater 
honor list of noted names. " On the long and brill- 
iant array of Paulicians we find William Whitaker, 



St. Paul's School. 107 

one of the earliest champions of the Reforniatiuii ; 
William Camden, the antiquarian, who in 1592 be- 
came Head-master of Westminster School ; the im- 
mortal John Milton ; Samuel Pepys, the quaint and 
witty diarist ; the great Duke of Marlborough ; Hal- 
ley, the famous astronomer; Sir Philip Francis, by 
many thought to be the author of the Letters of 
Junius ; and the eminent Greek scholar, Benjamin 
Jowett." Surely such an array of names as the 
foregoing is sufficient glory for any foundation ; but 
tiiere are scores of others only second in fame to 
these w^orthies, among whom are no less than ^nq 
bishops. 

After the great fire of London the school was for 
some time held in a private house until the school 
edifice could be rebuilt. As will be remembered, St. 
Paul's Cathedral was razed to the ground to give 
place to the noble structure designed by Sir Chris- 
topher Wren. The massive stones which had been 
uninjured by the fire were used in constructing many 
buildings in the vicinity and even for paving some of 
the streets, and the new St. Paul's School had many 
of these sacred stones incorporated in its walls. This 
edifice stood for over two hundred years. But the 
site was immensely valuable for trade purposes, and 



108 School-Boy Life in Merrie England. 

unfortunately, witliin the past few years the old 
site of St. Paul's School has been covered with a 
block of business houses, and the school removed to 
other quarters. 




Shrewsbury Grammar School, 

iWotto : 

"INTUS SI RECTE, NE LABORA." 



Shrewsbury Grammar School. 




O early as the days of the ancient 
Britons there was a town, named 
Pengwern, on the site of the 
city of Shrewslniry. The Ro- 
mans called the place Uriconinm, 
^^ a Latinized rendering of the British 
name of the near-by hill, Wrekin. The 
, Saxon invaders, under Offa of Mercia, in 
/ their turn, translated the name into 
Schrobbes-byrig, " hill of Shrubs," which has survived 
to the present in the name of Shrewsbury. So we 
see that the town boasts of an antiquity of at least 
fifteen hundred years, and was probably coeyal with 
the time of Christ. 

In the time of Alfred the Great, Shrew^sbury 
ranked as one of the chief cities of England ; and in 
1403 the memorable battle which resulted in the 
defeat of Hotspur and Douglas by Henry IV. was 
fought under its walls. Up to the year 6S5 Peng- 



112 School-Boy Life in Merrie England. 

wern was the capital of Fowls, King of the Welsh. 
The Normans, " whose nicer ears were offended at 
the rugged harshness of the Teutonic name," softened 
it into Salopesbury, whence the town is often called 
Salop to this day, and the county Shropshire is known 
as the shire of Salop. 

" The picturesque appearance of Shrewsbury, from 
whatever side we approach it," says Mr. Staunton, 
" the beauty of its situation and surrounding scenery, 
with the richness of its historical associations, com- 
bine to render it one of the most interesting of 
English towns. Shrewsbury is built upon the slopes 
and summit of a gentle eminence, rising from the 
plain of north Shropshire, and formed by one of the 
windings of * swift Severn ' into a peninsula, the 
neck of which on the north-east side is not more than 
three hundred yards in breadth. Beyond these 
limits it throws out three long suburbs — the Abbey 
Foregate, over the English Bridge, stretching to the 
south-east and south ; Frankwell, beyond the Welsh 
Bridge, to the north-west and west ; and the Castle 
Foregate, extending north and north-east from the 
narrow lane called Castle-gates, which, running under 
the castle, traverses the neck of land before men- 
tioned." 



Shrewsbury Grammar School. 113 

E'early three centuries and a half have passed 
since the worthy Shrewsbury burgesses determined 
to found a free school in the shire town. At Mich- 
aelmas, 1549, they petitioned the young King Ed- 
ward YI. for a grant of certain estates then vacant 
for the endowment of the school. Their prayer was 
granted, and thus was founded the " Free Grammar 
School of King Edward the Sixth." But ere the insti- 
tution was opened the young king died, and Queen 
Mary allowed the charter to lie dormant, or else the 
burgesses of Shrewsbury deemed the time unfavorable 
to the success of their plan. In 1562, however, four 
years after good Queen Bess had come to the throne, 
the school was opened with a large list of pupils on 
its roster, and almost at once took rank among the 
great schools of England. 

At the time of the endowment the revenues 
amounted to £98 8^. Zd.; but in 1880 the yearly 
value was near £3,500. The income of the head- 
master is about £2,000 = $10,000 ; not a large sum 
when we remember the great emoluments of the 
masters of Eton, Harrow, or Kugby. 

Shrewsbury School occupies a commanding site on 
the northern ridge of the " Hill of Shrubs," and is of 
rather imposing Tudor architecture. The main school 



114 School-Boy Life in Merrie England. 

is of stone, and dates from 1630, when it took the 
place of the original wooden structure. Over the 
gate is an inscription in Greek setting forth the 
axiom, " If you are fond of learning j'ou will be 
learned," and the two statues flanking the gate, one 
of a scholar and the other of a graduate of the seven- 
teenth century, stand respectively for "Fond of 
learnino;" and ''Learned." Beneath the central 
window is the escutcheon of Charles I. The main 
school-room occupies the whole of the upper story ; 
its windows are those in the higher range. The lower 
school occupies the basement, and in its w^indovvs are 
oaken boards or tablets on which are carved the 
names of distinguished scholars. The pointed win- 
dows in the tower are those of the library. The 
chapel and the library date from 1595. 

There are between two and three hundred boys at 
Shrewsbury, of whom about eighty are sons of bur- 
gesses, and as such entitled to a free education. The 
boys are graded among the following forms : 

Sixth Fotim : Fourth Form : 

Three divisions. Two divisions. 

Fifth Form : Third Form : 

Two divisions. Two divisions. 

The Shell : Second Form. 

Two divisions. First Form, 



Shrewsbury Grammar School. 115 

While the course of study at Shrewsbury is much 
the same as that pursued at any other of the 
great pubhc schools, marked attention is paid to 
classical work, and the success which Shrewsburys 
have attained at the universities and in public life 
is a proof of their thorough training and mental 
discipline. 

In one or two other respects, however, the 
school on Severn's bank is peculiar. The monitors 
have no executive powers — that is, they may not 
punish a boy or take the law in their own hands 
upon the slightest occasion. They stand as inter- 
mediaries between the scholars and the masters, 
and all requests from the one and commands from 
the others are transmitted through the monitors. 
Tliei'e are twelve of these praepostors, who obtain 
their rank by dint of superior excellence in study. 
" They are privileged to wear hats, to carry a 
stick, to go beyond the school precincts, and to 
go home at holiday time a day sooner than the 
others.'' 

Fagging as practiced at other schools is wholly 
unknown at Shrewsbury. Four fags are allotted to 
the praepostors, and are supposed to get breakfast 
and run messages for them, etc., but these four fags 



116 School-Buy Life in Merkie England. 

are changed every week, and there is no school 
lagging. 

Impositions, flogging, and expulsion are the pun- 
ishments in vogue. The Sixth Form is exempt from 
flogging, and when applied it must be by the head- 
master, and not oftener than six times in the half- 
year to the same culprit. 

The ancient statutes enjoin that tlie school sports 
shall consist of " shooting in the long bow and chess 
play, and no other games, unless it be running, 
wrestling, or leaping," while every Thursday the 
boys w^ere to "declaim and play one act of a com- 
edy." Nowadays, however, the favorite sports are 
cricket, fives, football, rowing, quoits, and hare and 
hounds. 

In eminent names the annals of old Shrewbury are 
rich. First and foremost comes that of Sir Philip 
Sidney, " the English Petrarch," and may be followed 
by that of his noble kinsman Lord Brooke, whose 
curious epitaph runs thus : *' Fulke Grevill, servant 
to Queene Elizabeth, Counceller to King James, and 
Frend to Sir Philip Sidne}^" Then came a galaxy 
of great and learned and pious churchmen — Thomp- 
son, Archbishop of York ; Bowers, Bishop of Chich- 
ester; Thomas, Bishop in succession of St. Asaph, 



Shkewsbury Gkammar School. 117 

Lincoln, and Salisbury ; Scott, master of Balliol ; 
Cradock, of Brasenose ; Archdeacons Wilson. Evans, 
France, Crawley, Foulkes, and Cobbold. In the 
realm of letters we meet Sir John Harrington, Sir 
Edwin Sandys and his brother George Sandys, and 
James Harrington, Wycherly, Ambrose Phillips, 
John Taylor, Shilleto, Basil Jones, and Smart Hughes, 
the traveler and historian. 

There is yet extant a letter from Sir Henry Sidney 
to his son Philip while the latter was at Shrewbury, 
w^hich for its quaint diction, rare kindliness, and wise 
counsel is worthy of reproduction here. 

" Sonne Philip^ I haue receiued two letters from 
you, the one written in Latine, the other in French, 
which I take in good parte, and will you to exercise 
that practise of learning often, for it will stand you in 
most steed in that profession of lyfe that you are borne 
to line. And now sithence this is my first letter that 
euer I did write to you, T will not that it be all 
empty of some aduices, which my naturall care of 
you prouoketh me to wish you to follow, as docu- 
mentes to you in this your tender age. Let your first 
action be the lifting vp of your minde to Almighty 
God by hartie praier, and feelingly digest the wordes 



118 School-Boy Lifk in Meerie England. 

you speak in praier with contirmall meditation, and 
thinking of him to whom you pray and vse this as an 
ordinarie, and at an ordinarie houre, whereby the 
time it selfe will put you in remembrance to doo 
that thing which you are accustomed to doo in that 
time. 

Apply your studie such houres as your discreet 
Master doth assigne you earnestly, and the time I 
know hee will so limit as shalbe both sufficient for 
your learning, yea and salfe for your health; and 
marke the sence and matter of that you doo reade 
as well as the words, so shall you both eni-ich your 
tongue with wordes, and your wit with matter, and 
iudgement wil grow, as yeares groweth in you. Be 
humble and obedient to your master, for vnlesse you 
frame your self to obey others, yea and feele in your 
selfe what obedience is, you shal neuer be able to 
teach others how to obey you. Be courteous of gest- 
ure, and affable vnto all men, with diuersitie of reuer- 
ence according to the dignitie of the person, there is 
nothing that winneth so much with so little cost, vse 
moderate diet, so as after your meale you may find 
your wit fresher and not more duller, and your body 
more liuely and not more heauie, seldome drinke 
wine, and yet sometimes do, least being inforced 



ShuewoBL'ky GKA:.i:,iA.ii Sch.)ol. 119 

to drinke vpon tlie sudden you should iiiid your selfe 
inflamed, vse exercise of bodie, but such as is without 
perill of your bones, or ioints, it will increase your 
force and enlarge your breath, delite to bee cleanly 
aswell in all parts of your body as in your garments, 
it shall make you gratefull in each company and oth- 
erwise lothsome, giue your selfe to be merie, for you 
degenerate from your father if you find not your selfe 
most able in wit and bodie, to do any thing when 
you be most merie, but let your mirth be euer void 
of all scurrillitie and biting words to any man, for an 
wound giuen by a worde is oftentimes harder to bee 
cured then that which is giuen with the sword : be 
you rather a hearer and bearer away of other mens 
talke, then a beginner or procurer of spech, otherwise 
you shalbe accompted to delite to heare your self 
speake. 

Be modest in ech assemblie, and rather be re- 
buked of light felowes for maidenlike shamefastnes, 
then of your sad friends for peart boldnes : think 
vpon eury worde that you will speake before you ntter 
it, and remember liow nature hath rampered vp as it 
were the tongue with teeth, lips, yea and haire without 
the lips, and all betokening rames and bridles to the 
lesse vse of that member; aboue all things tell no 



120 School Boy Life in Merrie England. 

vntrutli, no not in trifles, tlie custome of it is nought : 
And let it not satisfie you that the hearers for a time 
take it for a truth, yet after it will be knowne as it is 
to your shame, for there cannot be a greater reproch 
to a Gentleman than to be accompted a Iyer. Study 
and endeuour your selfe to be vertuously occupied, so 
shall you make such an h^tbite of well doing in you, 
as you shall not know how to do euill though you 
would : 

Remember my Sonne the Noble bloud you are 
discended of by your mothers side, and thinke that 
oidy by vertuous life and good action, you may be an 
ornament to that ylustre family, and otherwise 
through vice and sloth you may be accompted Lahes 
generis, a spot of your kin, one of the greatest cursses 
that can happen to man. Well my little Phillip^ 
this is enongh for me and I feare to much for you, 
but yet if I finde that this light meat of digestion do 
nourish any thing the weake stomack of your yoong 
capacitie, 1 will as I finde the same grow stronger, 
feede it with tougher food. Commend mee most 
liartily vnto Maister Justice Corbet, old Master 
Onslowe, and my Coosin his sonne. Farewell, your 
mother and I send you our blessings, and Almighty 
God graunt you his, nourish you with his feare, 



Shrewsbury Grammar School. 121 

gouerne you with liis grace, and make you a good 
seruant to your Prince and Countrey. 

" Your louing Father, Henry Sidney." 

To this there is appended a postscript from the 
pen of his mother, Lady Sidney, as follows : 

" Your 'Nohle and carefull Father hath taken paynes 
with his owne hand, to giue you in this his letter, so 
wise, so learned, and most requisite precepts for you 
to follow, with a diligent and humble thankefull 
minde, as I will not withdrawe your eies from be- 
holding and reuerent honoiing the same: No, not 
so long time as to read any letter from me, and there- 
fore at this time I will write unto you no other letter 
than this, wherby I first blesse you, with my desire to 
God to plant in you his grace, and secondarily warne 
you to haue alwaies before the eyes of your mind, 
these excellent counsailes of my Lord your deere 
Father, and that you fayle not continually once in 
foil re or five dales to reade them ouer. And for a 
finall leave taking for this time, see that you she we 
your selfe as a louing obedient Scholer to your good 
Maister, to gouerne you yet many yeeres, and that 
my Lord and I may heare that you profite so in your 



122 School-Boy Life in Meriiie England. 



learning, as thereby you may encrease our louing care 
of you, and deserue at his haiides the continuance of 
his great ioy, to have him often witnesse with his own 
hande the hope he hath in your well doing. Farewell 
my little Pliillip^ and once againe the Lord blesse 
you 

Makie Sidney." 



" Your louing Mother, 




CHRIST HOSPITAL 



Christ Hospital, 



(THE B L U E-C OAT SCHOOL.) 




^ITAT a queer name ! is the excla- 
mation of the reader. Yes, it 
is a queer name. " Christ 
J) Hospital" is the proper title, 
but few know it as such. The 
Blue-coat School it has been for many 
generations ; its scholars are dubbed " Blue- 
coat boys," and take pride in their odd 
js^ name. Let us explain the origin of such 
a strange title for an institution of learning. 

"Blue coat" has reference to the outer tunic which 
the scholars now wear, although its color was for- 
merly russet. It is now, and has been for many decades, 
of a darkish blue cloth — not quite so dark as the so- 
called blue flannel we use in this country — and it is 



*Leigli Hunt says the name is as printed here: " Christ Hospital," 
not " Christ's." 



126 School-Boy Life in Merrie England. 

fastened down the front from collar to waist with 
tiny round silver-plated buttons. 

This coat reaches from neck to heel ; it is confined 
at the waist by a narrow red leather strap with 
buckle and clasp, and from the belt downward it is 
open in front. This coat is not unlike an ulster in 
shape, yet it is much more graceful. 

Underneath the coat are a vest and knee-breeches 
of the same material, and white under-linen. Stock- 
ings of the brightest canary yellow tint and low 
quarter shoes with steel buckles are worn. A plain 
collar ending in two short bands, like those some- 
times worn by clergymen, and a blue worsted cap 
complete the costume, but the latter is seldom worn, 
and the boys go bare-headed in all weathers. 

Years ago the " Blues " wore a canary-colored 
petticoat instead of the knee-breeches, and each boy 
was compelled to carry in his hand a little cap, too 
small for wear, and designed solely for ornament. 

From this description my readers will be prepared 
to believe that a Blue-coat boy is a rather odd-looking 
object to transatlantic eyes ; yet I am bound to con- 
fess that the entire dress is one that commends itself 
on the score of comfort, healthfulness, and conven- 
ience. 



Christ Hospital. 127 

Thoiio^li it makes one shiver to see these bare- 
headed lads in the London streets in the raw and in- 
clement English winter weather, not one of them 
seems to need sympathy. There is nothing either 
snperliuous or lacking in the Blue-coat dress, and it 
reminds ns irresistibly of the graceful costumes of 
the Middle Ages — of which, in fact, it is a relic. 
The celerity with which these boys can tuck the 
skirts of the coat into the girdle, or "peel" when 
taken for their weekly swim in summer, is amazinu ; 
nor can I call to mind a funnier sight than a cricket or 
foot-ball field dotted with these bare-headed, yellow- 
legged youngsters. 

The school is situated in Newgate Street, in the 
heart of the "city" of London, opposite the famous 
Newgate Prison, on the site of the ancient Friary of 
Franciscans, where its shady play-ground, hemmed in 
by warehouses, offices, and factories, forms a pleasant 
oasis in the desert of stony streets by which it is 
surrounded. Any one who has passed the gloomy 
Newgate Jail must have noticed some ancient-look- 
ing stone buildings on the left-hand side of Newgate 
Street. Through a massive and ornate iron gateway 
which guards the entrance one may often see the boys 
at recess. These are the scholars and these are the 



128 School-Boy Life in Merkie England. 

buildings belonging to Christ Hospital, and before 
the barred gate gray and grizzled merchants will 
often pause in their hurried walk, the joyous shouts 
of the careless urchins at play awaking pleasant mem- 
ories of their own by-gone boyhood. 

In the rear the property of Christ Hospital adjoins 
that of St. Bartholomew's Hospital — another shining 
example of munificent charity — while about a quarter 
of a mile away stands the Charterhouse School. 

The school is bounded by Newgate Street, Gilt- 
spur Street, St. Bartholomew's, and Little Britain — 
all ancient thoroughfares, antedating the school itself. 
" There is a quadrangle with cloisters ; the square 
inside the cloisters is called the Garden, and was 
probably the monastery garden. But," says Leigh 
Hunt, " its only delicious crop, for many years, has 
been paving-stones." Another large area is named 
the Ditch, the town ditch having formerly run that 
way. A portion of the old quadrangle was once 
repaired by the famous Whittington during one of 
his mayorships, and for a long time bore his coat-of- 
arms. In the cloisters lie buried a number of his- 
toric personages, among them being Isabella, wife of 
Edward Second, nicknamed " the she-wolf of France." 
Leigh Hunt says Christ Hospital is a "nursery of 



Christ HosriTAL. 121) 

tradesmen, of naval officers, of merchants, of scliol- 
ars ; it lias produced men who were amon^ the ^reat- 
est ornaments of their time ; and the feeling among 
the hoys themselves is that it is a medium between 
the patrician pretenses of such schools as Eton and 
Westminster and the plebeian submission of the char- 
ity schools." He says, in evidence of its democratic 
spirit, that in his time there were two boys there, 
'^one of whom, after school, went up into the 
drawing-room to his father, the master of the house ; 
while the other went down into the kitchen, to his 
father, the coachman. The boys had no sort of feel- 
ing of the difference of one another's ranks out of 
doors. The cleverest boy was the noblest, let his 
father be who he midit." 

Although many of the English monasteries were 
the scenes of much that was evil, yet they did a good 
work in caring for the poor in their immediate neigh- 
borhoods. The Grey Friars in Newgate Street were 
no exception to this rule, so when King Henry Eighth 
drove out the monks and shut up their friary many 
of the great city's poor were left without any one to 
whom they could turn for help in time of need. In 
those days the misery of the poor in the great capital 
was extreme, and, knowing this, the king gave " the 



130 SciiooL-BoY Life in Mkrrie England. 

cliiircli and lionse of the late Grey Friars within the 
city, and all tlie appurtenances thereto belonging " — 
so the old parchment deed of gift runs — to the 
mayor and corporation of London, intending tliat 
they should put it to some charitable use. But after 
the gift was made notliing was done, and the prop- 
erty lay idle. But his son, the youthful Edward 
Sixth, remembered the gift, and by him the grant 
was revived and made of real benefit. 

Edward was but ten years old when he came to tlip 
throne, and he died when he was sixteen, yet, child 
as he w^as, lie was not too young to care for others, 
and it w\as peculiarly fitting that this boy ruler should 
found a home for children who were fatherless and 
destitute, where they might be sheltered, clothed, 
fed, and educated. His memory is kept green to 
this day among the "Blues;" his statue stands over 
the entrance to the Hospital, and there are no less 
than three oil-paintings of him in different parts of 
the building. 

Christ Hospital was founded by King Edward 
Sixth, June 26, 1553, and was at first intended as 
a "hospital for orphans and foundlings," the older 
meaning of the word hospital signifying an asylum 
or place of refuge. Charles Second added to the 



Christ Hospital. 131 

scliool in 1672, and at various times since it has been 
enlarged, rebuilt, or improved. 

In 1825 the Duke of York hiid the corner-stone of 
a magnificent hall, and in 1863 an ''annex" was es- 
tablished at Hertford for the youno^er boys. The 
annual income, derived from rents and from money 
in the funds, is about £75,000 (in round numbers, 
$350,000), and there are some eight hundred boys at 
the school in London besides four hundred at the 
preparatory school Mt Hertford ; where there are also 
about sixty girls, who make and sew almost all the 
linen used by themselves and the boys. 

Although the intentions of its princely founder 
have been departed from, in respect to parentless 
children alone being admitted, and although the in- 
stitution is now a great deal more than a mere charity 
affair, yet the school, we are told, " has never ceased 
to preserve its reputation as one of the first charitable 
institutions of England, where the sons of gentlemen 
and professional men of small income may receive 
free living, free education, and free clothing." 

The noble school was originally so richly endowed 
and has so flourished during the last three hundred 
years that it is to-day one of the wealthiest institu- 
tions connected with Britain's metropolis. There is 



132 School- DoY Life in Merkie England. 

a story to the eEect that the pioos young Edward 
was prompted to endow the three sister "hospitals," 
of St. Thomas, the Bridewell, and Christ, by a sermon 
on " Charity " preached before him at Westminster 
by Bishop Kidley. Stow, the quaint chronicler of 
the time, relates a characteristic anecdote of the 
generous prince. A blank having been left in the 
deed for the sum which the young king should be 
pleased to grant, "he, looking on the void place, 
called for pen and ink, and w^th his own hand wrote 
four thousand metrics hy the year ; and then said : 
' Lord, I yield thee most hearty thanks that thou hast 
given me life thus long to finish this work to tlie 
glory of thy name ! ' " 

Prominent among the great men who have been 
educated at Christ Hospital stand Richardson, the 
novelist; Edward Stillingfleet, chaplain to Charles 
Second and an eminent English prelate ; William Cam- 
den, the antiquary ; Samuel Taylor Coleridge ; Bishop 
Thomas Fanshawe Middleton, of Calcutta; James 
Scholefield, the eminent Greek scholar; Joshua 
Barnes, the learned divine ; Thomas Barnes, for some 
years editor of The Times of London ; the Rev. 
George Townsend, a scholar of vast attainments ; 
Charles Lamb ; Thomas Hartwell Home, and Leigh 



Chkist Hospital. 133 

Hunt, wliom our Hawthorne called a " stray Amer- 
ican," besides a host of lesser lights. Leigh Hunt 
says that Christ Hospital "toward the close of the 
last century and the beginning of the present sent 
out more living writers in its proportion than any 
other school." 

Admission to the school can only be secured by 
means of a " presentation " by one of the governors, 
and upon certain conditions. Each " governor," by 
virtue of a donation of £500 ($2,500) is entitled to 
pi-esent one boy every three years. Candidates must 
be between eight and ten years of age, and free from 
any active disease or physical defect. It is assumed 
that their parents, if one or both be living, are of in- 
sufficient means to properly educate and maintain 
them, and that the children have not such means of 
their own, either present or prospective. A written 
statement, answering questions bearing on these 
topics, must be handed in, showing the amount of 
the parental income, the number of children in the 
family, how many of these are of tender age, and so 
on. 

This statement must be indorsed by the governor 
presenting the boy, registering his belief that the 
child so presented is a proper subject for admission 



ISi School-Boy Life in Meerie England. 

into the school. No scholar can remain after the age 
of fifteen, except king's scholars, who attend the 
mathematical school founded by Charles Second in 
10 72, and " Grecians," the members of the highest 
class. 

The government of the school is vested in the 
"General Court of Governors," consisting of upward 
of five hundred noblemen and gentlemen, with whom 
alone rests the right of presentation. 

The education given at Christ Hospital is of a high 
grade, and its pupils rank with those of Charterhouse 
or Westminster. Latin and Greek are the basis of 
the studies, while the modern languages, the sciences, 
drawing, music, etc., are taught. The branches of a 
good, solid English training, of course, are not neg- 
lected, such as grammar and the three R's. But 
in addition to the liberal scheme of tuition, Christ 
Hospital provides food, clothes, and shelter for its 
scholars. Consequently, presentations are eagerly 
sought after, and the list of candidates is always far 
in excess of present and prospective vacancies. Fre- 
quently, also, when at length a boy's name is reached, 
the long delay has put him above the age of ten 
years, and he is ineligible. The writer was one of 
those nnfortunates. 



Chuist Hospital. 135 

With few exceptions tlie head-nuisters have always 
been old "Blues/' The salary attached is £1,000 a 
year, besides wliicli a dwelling and subsistence are pro- 
vided for himself and his family free of charge. Thus 
the master of Christ Hospital enjoys an income far in 
excess of that accruing to many a college president in 
these United States. The tutors are all University 
men, and number twenty-eight. They are paid, on 
an average, £600 yearly. 

The followino^ amusino; letters * from a real Blue- 
coat boy give us many glimpses at the life of the 
scholars at Christ Hospital in recent years. In the 
first one we are to imagine the " new boy " in the 
midst of his trials and torments : 

Hertford. 

Dear Mater : I don't mind going without a hat 
at all, and I have learned how to tuck my gown into 
my girdle when I play, but I wish I wasn't a new 
boy. 

I haven't touched my grub yet, as I don't feel very 
well. I bought a shilling's worth of jumbles at the 
tuck shop last night, and eat them in bed, with some 
condensed milk and sardines another fellow gave me. 

* Published by Mr. Hiigli Francis Fox iu Uarper^s Young People, 
1886. 



136 SciiooL-BoY Life in Merrie England. 

1 luive got a bad toothache to-da}^ I think I must 
have caught cold in my tooth on the journey. Please 
send nie some wool to put in it. 

Tlie fellows sent me down to the cook this morning 
to have my mouth measured for a spoon. The cook 
told me to shut my eyes and open my mouth wide, 
and then he crammed it full of salt. Don't you 
think that was awfully mean, mater ? 

Your affec. son. 

The next letter finds him on his footing with his 
mates, and reconciled to the school and its discipline : 

Hertford. 

Dear Mater : I like school a great deal better 
now. The fellows are all collecting pins. One fel- 
low liasn't any roof to his mouth, and he is showing 
it at a pin a peep ; so I thought I would show my 
enlarged tonsils. I let them have three peeps for 
two pins, and called it " The Great and Only Tonsil 
Show — patronized by the Queen and all the Royal 
Family." I got no end of a lot of pins ; but some of 
the big chaps wanted to tickle my tonsils with a 
tooth-brush, so I closed the show. Please send me 
a whole lot of pins on my birthday. 

I got in an awful row this morning. The fellow 



Christ Hospital. 137 

next me Lad a cold in his head, and snuffled like any 
thing all through first lesson. He hadn't any hand- 
kerchief, so he asked me to lend him mine. I hate 
lending other fellows my handkerchief; but I didn't 
want to use it, so I told him I would lend it him for 
a penny a blow. He said he didn't think less than 
three blows would be any good, and he had only 
tuppence witli him ; so I let him have three blows 
for tuppence. I dropped one of the pennies on the 
floor, and the master heard it, and made me tell all 
about it. Then he said I was a wretched little money- 
grubber, and w^asn't fit to sit with the other boys, and 
told me to go outside and play with the sparrows. I 
have lost five places by it, and think it is very hard 
lines. Would you lend your handkerchief to another 
fellow for nothing? 

Give my love to the children. Your affec. son. 

He is now able to criticise his companions — a sure 

sign that he feels perfectly at ease : 

Hertford. 

I)eak Old Mater : Thanks awfully for the sticking- 
plaster. The fellow w^ho sits next to me in church 
has a game-leg. He says he was riding on the ele- 
phant at the Zoo, and some one made faces at him, 
and he ran away w^tli him on his back, and one of 



138 SciiooL'BoY Life in Merrie England. 

the keepers tripped him up with some string, and he 
tumbled down and threw liim onto the path, and 
broke his leg. 

There is a new boy sitting by me who has yellow 
hair and red eyes, and blubs all the time, because he 
is home-sick, I suppose. He has just showed me his 
album, and his sister is as ugly as any thing. She is 
all squint-eyed, and her face is covered with freckles. 
He says he is going to ask nie to stay with him in 
the summer holidays, but I don't mean to go. 

I haven't any more to say, so I will say good-bye. 

Your affec'ate son. 

Our Blue-coat boy is now arrived at the dignity of 
a transfer to the main school at London, and feels 

full of importance in consequence: 

London. 

Dear Mater: Please address my letters Mr. H. F. 
Fox, now I am a London fellow. 

There are eight hundred boys in the London 
school, and some of them are nearly twenty years 
old, and have whiskers. We come out of morning 
school at a quarter past twelve, and at a quarter to 
one preparation bell rings, and we all tear olf to our 
wards to get ready for dinner. At one o'clock the 
bugle sounds, and we march to the hall play -ground 



Christ TTospital. 139 

and fall in by the side of our ward flags. There are 
sixteen companies of fifty boys each. We fall in in 
double rank, behind the corporal and monitor, and 
stand at ease till the bugle goes again. Then the 
sergeant gives the word of command : 

'' 'Tention. Dress by the right. Form fours right. 
Forward — Marr-r-ch ! " 

Then the band strikes up, and we march round the 
play-ground and into the big dining-hall. When the 
boys are all at their tables, the warden gets onto his 
platform, and gives three raps with his hammer, and 
we have to stop talking. We all sing a hymn, and 
one of the Grecians gets into the pulpit, and reads 
grace, and then the warden raps again, and we begin 
to eat. 

The sergeant is awfully brave, and has five medals. 
He says he knew the Duke of Wellington quite well, 
and fought beside him in the battle of Waterloo. He 
has no end of a big chest. The brass band makes a 
jolly row. There are fifty boys in it, and they have 
a big drum and five kettle-drums. Your affec. son. 

The boys who are at the main school in London 
look down on the boys at Hertford, and call them 
" cads." The next epistle, " on the choice of a pro- 



140 School-Boy Life in Merrie England. 

fession," is delicious reading because of -its boyish 

artlessness : 

London, 

Dear Mater : We are learning " The Ladj of the 
Lake " this term. I think poetry is jolly fun. If 
you won't let nie be a soldier, I think I would like to 
be a poet. Do you think Sir Walter Scott was much 
older than 1 am when he began to be a poet ? I 
wrote you a poem in the French school this morning, 
because I had nothing to do. I wrote it without 
thinking at all, and it only took me half an hour. 

Don't tell any one I am writing poetry, please, 
because they would only chaff me. 

Your affec. son. 

Some school customs come in for their share of 

notice in the next three : 

London. 

Dear Mater : We had the first public supper last 

night. They have them every Thursday in Lent, 

and heaps of people come to see them. While we 

are having supper the people walk round the hall and 

watch us. The Duke of Cambridge presided last 

night, and he patted me on the head as he passed me. 

One of our beadles was in the Crimean war, and the 

Duke went and talked to him. Tlie beadle said 



Christ Hospital. 141 

" your lionor " every minute, and at last the Duke 
said, " Don't call me your honor— call me 5^>." 

After supper we all have to " bow round." The 
wards form into ranks, with the matrons and mon- 
itors in front. The boys who carry the bread basket 
come next. Then come the rest of the boys, the 
table-cloth, knife, and water boys coming last. We 
walk past the President two at a time, and bow to 
hiin, and he bows to us. He must get very tired of 
bowing by the time it is over. 

There is a jolly swimming bath in the school, and 
I am learning to dive. I generally manage to go 
flat on my stomach, and it hurts like any thing. 

I am going to get as strong as I can this term, so 
that I can thrash all the fellows at home next 
holidays. Your affec'ate son. 

London. 
Dear Mater : The Chinese Ambassadors were at 
the last public supper. They are awfully funny- 
looking men. The fellows say that if a Chinaman 
has his pigtail pulled, he will be disgraced forever. 
One of the fellows dared me to pull their tails, so I 
squeezed in by them when they were getting into 
their carriage after supper, and gave one of their 



142 SciiooL-BoY Life in Mp:rrie England. 

tails a jerk. The old heathen turned round and 
jabbered at me like any thing. I couldn't under- 
stand what he said, but it sounded as if he was 
swearing. I tried to get away, but one of the beadles 
collared me, and I thought I was in for no end of a row. 
Just then, though, I heard a shout, " Fours to the 
rescue ! " and a lot of our fellows came running up. 
The beadle made a grab at one of them, and another 
fellow tripped him up, and I ran under the horse's 
nose and got away. It was too dark for him to see 
my face, so I think it is all right. Your affec. son. 

London. 
Dear Mater : On Easter Tuesday the whole 
school marched through the streets to the Mansion 
House, where the Lord Mayor lives. When the 
Lord Mayor was ready the big doors were thrown 
open and we marched into the Venetian Parlor. The 
Lord Mayor was sitting at a table in his swell robes, 
and the mace-bearer and a lot of other men in uni- 
form were standing behind him. The Lord Mayor 
gave each of us a brand-new shilling, and a footman 
with powder all over his head handed us two buns 
and a glass of wine. Last year one of the fel- 
lows said he was a teetotaler, and refused to drink 



Christ [Iospital. 143 

his wine, and the Lord Mayor sent him a nice book 
afterward, so I tlionglit I would refuse to take the 
wine too. He didn't give me a book, though, and I 
think it is a regular sell. Your affec'ate son. 

These are no " made-up" letters, but were actually 
sent by a flesh-and-blood Blue-coat boy to his 
^' mater." 

One other quaint custom deserves to be noticed. 
Every Good Friday sixty of the "Blues" go to the 
ancient city church of All-Hallows, in Lombard 
Street, where, after singing an anthem, they are pre- 
sented with a penny and a paper bag of raisins ! In 
the seventeenth century a worthy London " cit " 
left a bequest of money for this purpose. But only 
the little fellows go on this pilgrimage, and when 
they come back they are unmercifully chaffed by the 
older boys, w^ho chant a doggerel refrain as follows : 

'• Come, little Blue-coat Boy, come, come, come, 
Sing for a penny and chant for a plum." 

Another ancient privilege gives the boys free admis- 
sion at all times to the far-famed Tower of London. 

Having now some idea of the make-up of the 
Blue-coat School, let us glance at its inner life and 
working. 



lltt School-Boy Life in Merrie England. 

Tlie school in London is divided into sixteen 
"wards" of forty-five boys each, and every "ward" 
is presided over by a monitor, whose duty it is to 
keep order in the dormitory and at meal-tiines. For 
purposes of study the boys are graded into Upper 
and Lower Grammar, with three forms eacli, tlie 
Mathematical, and the English and Commercial, 
which are the lowest classes, into which the little 
fellows are put when they come up from Hertford. 
Then there is the Modern School, having two lower 
fourth forms and two upper fourth forms. Many 
boys leave the school after going through the upper 
fourth. But for those who choose to remain there 
are still higher grades and valuable benefits, witli 
college preparation. Those boys who remain in the 
school after passing the upper fourth go on to otlier 
classes, called " Little Erasmus," " Great Erasmus," 
" Deputy Grecians," " Junior Grecians," and " Gre- 
cians," names peculiar to the Blue-coat School. 

In the Commercial School the boys get a thorough 
drilling in mercantile affairs, so that at the age of fif- 
teen, when the course closes, they are often received 
into prominent city offices as junior clerks and ac- 
countants. This is tlie largest class in the school. 

The Mathematical School carries its pupils, w^ho 



Christ Hospital. 145 

are called "King's Boys," and who are forty in 
number, a step liiglier. This department was 
founded by Charles Second, with the object of 
fitting its scholars for the navy. Under his grant 
ten boys are annually sent up to the Trinity House 
for examination in nautical affairs. On passing 
this ordeal they are detailed to the naval service, 
choosing for themselves the department they like 
best — engineering, gunnery, or navigation. Before 
leaving the school each boy is presented with a set 
of nautical instruments — quadrant, chronometer, sex- 
tant, etc. — a well-filled sea chest, a silver watch, and 
£15 in money. When he has completed three years 
of sea service the youth may, if he so choose, and 
can prove that he is proficient in his profession, 
return to the school, and claim a further grant of 
£15. These "Koyal Mathematical Boys" wear a 
medal on their shoulders as a distinguishing badge, 
and once a year they go to court, where their maps 
and charts are examined by the queen in person ; a 
custom that has come down to us from the founding 
of the school. 

The members of the highest classes in the upper 
school are termed " Grecians " — it is supposed be- 
cause in the early annals of the institution they were 
10 ^ 



143 ScHooL-EoY Life in Mekkie England. 

tlie only scholars taiiglit Greek. They are twentj- 
four in number, and are divided into " five Exhibi- 
tioners, eight Second Grecians, and twelve Proba- 
tionary Grecians." Four of this class are annually 
sent to tlie Universities of Oxford or Canibrido:e at 
the expense of Christ HospitaL The yearly value 
of these "exhibitions" or scholarships is £100 
apiece. " Upon proceeding to either university each 
Grecian receives an allowance of £20 for books, £10 
for clothes, and £30 for fees, etc. Thus, a youth 
who sticks to the school, and pursues his studies 
successfully, is in a great measure provided for all 
through his life. A boy is fed, clothed, and taught 
fron"! the age of eight or nine to eighteen ; lie is 
sent to a university with a yearly allowance ample 
for a young man to subsist on ; all the university 
honors are open to him, and should he succeed in 
winning a college fellowship a living is secured to 
him for life, provided he does not marry ; he may 
compete at the o])en examinations for the scientific 
service of the army or for appointment in the home 
or colonial civil service." Think what a boon these 
advantages are to many. 

A Grecian has several privileges. He may sit up 
till eleven o'clock; he has a special fag to wait on 



Chkist Hospital. 147 

him ; he may visit his friends at any time out of 
school hours ; he has such delicacies as fish or bacon 
for breakfast, and jam for tea ; he eats by himself, 
at a separate table, and has a private room to study 
in. The other boys dub them '' swells." 

Formerly the discipline was very severe, and the 
routine of studies pursued was neither very enlight- 
ened nor conducive to rapid advancement in learn- 
ing. But of late years many needed changes and 
improved methods have been introduced. 

Samuel Taylor Coleridge has left us some amusing 
records of his life there. Floggings were numerous 
in those days, and the head-master's wife was held 
in fond remembrance by him and his school-mates 
because she frequently invoked the sparing of the 
rod. On one occasion Mr. Boyer was lecturing 
Coleridge and another boy before administering a 
whipping. Suddenly Mrs. Boyer looked into the 
room. 

" Mind you flog them soundly," she called out. 

" Away ! madam, away ! " laughingly retorted her 
husband, who knew she meant otherwise, and the 
culprits escaped. 

This Mrs. Boyer was "a sprightly, good-looking 
woman with black eyes, and was belield witli trans- 



148 SciiooL-BoY Life in Meekie England. 

port by the boys whenever she appeared at the 
school door. Her husband's name, uttered in a tone 
of mingled good nature and imperativeness, brought 
him down from his seat w^ith smiling haste. Some 
of us were not liked the better by the master be- 
cause we were in favor with his wife. On entering 
the school one day he found a boy eating cherries. 
* Where did you get those cherries ? ' he thundered, 
tliinking the boy had no excuse. ' Mrs. Boyer gave 
them me, sir.' He turned away, scowling w^ith dis- 
appointment." 

This Head-master Boyer would seem to have been 
not a very lovable man. Though he was a good 
pedagogue, he was irritable, unfair, and a toady, and 
was given to severe punishments. Coleridge said 
of him, when he heard of liis death : " It is lucky 
that the cherubim wdio took him to heaven wore 
nothing but faces and wings, or he w^ould certainly 
liave flogged them by tlie way." Boyer could not 
understand a lad of Coleridge's temperament, and 
jeeringly referred to him as "that sensible fool 
Coleridge." There are several choice anecdotes ex- 
tant about Boyer and his boys, and we may here cite 
a few of them. 

" One anecdote of his injustice will suffice for all. 



Christ Hospital. 149 

It is of ludicrous enormity; nor do I believe any 
thing more flagrantly willful was ever done by him- 
self. I heard Mr. C , the sufferer, now a most 

respectable person in a government ofiice, relate it 
with a due relish, long after quitting the school. 

The master was in the habit of ^spiting' C ; 

that is to say, of taking every opportunity to be se- 
vere with him ; nobody knew why. One day he 
comes into the school, and finds him placed in the 
middle of it with three other boys. He was not in 
one of his w^orst humors, and did not seem inclined 
vO punish them till he saw his antagonist. ' O, 
O, sir ! ' said he ; ^ what, you are among them, are 
you ? ' and gave him an exclusive thump on the 
face. He then turned to one of the Grecians, and^ 
said, ' I have not time to flog all these boys : make 
them draw lots, and I'll punish one.' The lots were 
drawn, and C 's was favorable. ' O, O ! ' re- 
turned the master, when he saw them, 'you have 
escaped, have you, sir ? ' and pulling out his watch, 
and turning again to the Grecian, observed that he 
found he had time to punish the w^hole three ; ^ and, 

sir,' added he to C , with another slap, ' I'll 

begin with you^ He then took the boy into the 
library and flogged him ; and, on issuing forth again, 



150 School-Boy Life in Mp:RrtiE England. 

had the face to say, with an air of indifference, ' I 
have not time, after all, to punish these two other 
boys ; let them take care how they provoke me an- 
other time.* " 

There was a book used by the learners in reading 
entitled. Dialogues Between' a Missionary and an 
Indian. One lad used to read with a deep toned 
drawl and a total omission of punctuation marks. 
Thus would the master and pupil proceed : 

Master. — " Kow, young man, have a care, or I'll 
set you a swinging task." [A favoi'ite phrase of his.] 

Pupil.— [Making a sort of heavy bolt at his calam- 
ity, and never remembering his periods and commas.] 
" Missionary Can you see the wind ? " 

[Master gives him a slap on the cheek.] 

Pupil. — [Raising his voice to a cry, and still for- 
getting the period.] " Indian No ! " 

Master. — " Gad's-my-life, young man ! Have a 
care how you provoke me." 

Pupil. — [Always forgetting the stop] " Missionary 
How then do you know that there is such a thing ? " 

[Here a terrible thump.] 

Pupil. — [With a shout of agony.] " Indian Because 
I feel it." 

" Sometimes," says Leigh Hunt, " our despot got 



Cueist Hospital. 151 

into a dileinina, and then he did not know how to get 
out of it. A boy, now and then, would be roused 
into open and fierce remonstrance. I recollect S., 
afterward one of the mildest of preachers, starting up 
in his place and pouring forth on his astonished 
hearer a torrent of invectives and threats, which tlie 
other could only answer by turning pale and uttering 
a few threats in return. Nothing came of it. He 
did not like such matters to go before the governors. 
Another time Favell, a Grecian, a youth of high 
spirit, whom he had struck, w^ent to the school door, 
opened it, and turning round with the handle in his 
grasp, told him he would never set foot again in the 
place unless he promised to treat him with more deli- 
cacy. ^ Come back, child ; come back ! ' said the 
other, pale, and in a faint voice. There was a dead 
silence. Favell came back, and nothing more was 
done." 

There was a lad named Le Grice, the pet of the 
school, a Deputy Grecian at the time of which we 
write, and yet he was guilty of the maddest pranks. 
Yet his mates adored him, chiefly because of his cool 
defiance of the tyrant Boyer. " He had a fair, hand- 
some face, with delicate aquiline nose and twinkling 
eyes. I remember his astonishing me, when I was a 



152 SciiooL-BoY Life in Merrie England. 

' new boy,' with sending me for a bottle of wiiter, 
Avliicli he proceeded to pour down the back of G., a 
grave Deputy Grecian. On the master asking one 
day why he, of all the boys, had given up no exercise 
(it was a particular exercise that they w^ere bound to 
do in the course of a long set of holidays), he said he 
had had ' a lethargy.' The extreme impudence of 
this puzzled the master, and I believe nothing came 
of it. But what I alluded to about the fruit was this. 
Le Grice was in the habit of eating apples in school- 
time, for which he had been often rebuked. One 
day, having particularly pleased the master, the lat- 
ter, who was eating apples himself, and who would 
now and then with great ostentation present a boy 
with some half-penny token of his mansuetude, called 
out to his favorite of the moment : ' Le Grice, here 
is an apple for you.' Le Grice, who felt his dignity 
hurt as a Grecian, but was more pleased at having 
this opportunity of mortifying his reprover, replied 
with an exquisite tranquillity of assurance, ' Sir, I 
never eat apples.' For this, among other things, the 
boys adored him." * 

On another occasion, when Coleridge was crying 
after coming back from the holidays, " Boys," said the 

* Leip;h Hunt. 



Christ Hospital. 153 

muster, '^ the school is your fatlier ! The school is 
your mother ! The school is your brother and your 
sister ! The school is your second cousin and all the 
rest of your relations ! So let us have no more 
crying ! " 

There are, of course, some queer usages connected 
with the school, and, though they are unwritten laws, 
they have all the force of the famous edicts of the 
Medes and Persians. On Easter Tuesday the boys 
walk in procession to the Mansion House, hard by, to 
visit the Lord Mayor of London, according to a very 
ancient custom. The Mansion House may be de- 
scribed as the City Hall of the " city " of London. 
There the mayor resides, and there civil and criminal 
trials take place and all the municipal " functions" are 
held. The boys are received in the Venetian Parlor. 
Their visit is for the purpose of receiving a small 
present of money. Thus, on the last occasion, 684 
boys received a shilling, thirteen monitors received a 
guinea, seven deputy-monitors a half -guinea, and forty- 
one Grecians half-a-crown apiece. All the coins are 
lew and bright, just out of the Mint. Each boy also 
gets two buns and a glass of wine ! 

Visitors are admitted to see the boys at dinner on 
Sundays at 1:45 in the afternoon. " Public Suppers " 



15tl: SciiooL-BoY Life in Meerie England. 

occyr on Tliursdays in Lent, except the last, and 
crowds of visitors look in on the boys at these times. 
Supper is succeeded by the " bow round." The 
various " wards •' form in files and march past the 
president and governors in couples, each bowing to 
the other. In this odd procession the matrons and 
monitors go first, and the rear guard is composed of the 
bread, table-cloth, knife, and water boys. There is a 
brass band composed wholly of the boys, also a fife- 
an d-d rum corps. 

Now let us see how the boys live. The dormitories 
are lengthy, clean, and w^ell-ventilated apartments, 
each holding fifty beds. Every boy has a cot to him- 
self, and at its foot is a trunk with a hinged lid, 
wdiich serves at once for a seat and for a wardrobe for 
his clothes. The boys make their own beds and clean 
their owm shoes. The lavatory is open at all hours, 
and personal cleanliness is insisted on. In the sum- 
mer months the school rents a large swdmming-bath 
called the " Peerless Pool," at Iloxton, a few minutes' 
walk distant, where they go in batches once a w-eek 
to swim. Although fagging, as it is practiced in 
other English schools, is unknown at Christ Hospital, 
yet something very like it exists, for every monitor 
has a boy to wait on him ; this boy in turn has a sec- 



Christ Hospital. 155 

ond boy to perform tlie same service ; and the second 
boy lias likewise a third. 

All meals are taken in the great dining-hall, which 
is a noble chamber, eighty-seven feet long, fifty feet 
wide, and forty-six feet high. At the east end there 
is a beautiful carved screen, on which appears the 
legend : " Fear God, love the brotherhood, honor the 
king." The windows of this hall are of stained glass ; 
there is a magnificent organ in the gallery, and a num- 
ber of paintings by such masters as Holbein, Yerrio, 
and Lely are around the walls. 

The tables are eighteen in number, of oak, placed 
at equal distances from each other, the Grecians be- 
ing seated by themselves on a raised dais at the upper 
end of the room. The entire school marches in in 
military order to the strains of the school band. When 
every boy is opposite his plate the w^arden raps thrice, 
which is the signal for silence. Before every meal a 
portion of Scripture is read, a hymn sung, and grace 
is said by one of the Grecians from a desk in the 
center of the chamber. Then the warden raps on 
his desk once, and the eight hundred boys fall to 
eating. 

The food furnished is plain, wholesome, and plen- 
tiful, and consists of bread and milk for breakfast ; 



156 School-Boy Life in Mekrie England. 

meats, vegetables, and fruits for dinner ; and bread 
and butter and tea for supper. 

The boys rise at six in summer and an hour later 
in winter, and play for an hour before breakfast. 
Then comes school from nine until noon, and again 
from two o'clock until five. The hours between are 
devoted to dinner and to recreation. The youngsters 
go to bed at nine, but the seniors are permitted to 
prepare lessons for the next day until ten o'clock, 
when all lights nmst be put out. 

There is a splendid library, numbering nearly six 
thousand volumes, a large part of which consists of 
works calculated to interest the younger boys. It is 
free to all, and is open every day at stated hours. 

The phiy-ground, though not suitable for cricket, 
being graveled and paved, is of generous dimen- 
sions. Foot-ball, chevy, and hockey, beloved by 
English boys, are much indulged in. There is an ex- 
cellent gymnasium attached to the school, where the 
boys, great and small, are instructed by one of the best 
professors in England. The governors have rented a 
large field at Heme Hill, a few miles from the city, 
where the boys go in detachments twice a week by 
train to play cricket. 

Frequent intercourse with friends is allowed. The 



Christ Hospital. 157 

liolidays consist of live weeks at midsummer and 
four weeks at Christmas. The first Wednesday of 
each month is also appointed a " leave day," on which 
the boys are permitted to go out to see their friends or 
to receive them at the school. 

Concerning the general character of the institution, 
Leigh Hunt says : " Perhaps there is not a founda- 
tion in the country so truly English, taking that word 
to mean what Englishmen wish it to mean — some- 
thing solid, unpretending, and free to all. More 
boys are to be found in it who issue from a greater 
variety of ranks than in any other school in the king- 
dom ; and as it is the largest so it is the most various 
of the free schools. 'Now and then a boy of patrician 
family may be met with, but he is looked on as an 
interloper, and against the charter. The sons of poor 
gentry and solid London citizens abound, and with 
them an equal share is given to the sons of trades- 
men of the very humblest description." 

The writer last quoted^ has left us in his Autobiog- 
raphy some amusing records of the life at the Blue- 
coat School in his time. 

The w^ards, or sleeping rooms, were twelve, and 
contained rows of beds on each side, partitioned off, 

* Leio-li Hunt. 



158 School-Boy Lifp: in Mereie England. 

but connected witli each other, and each having two 
bojs to sleep in it. Down the middle ran the bins 
for holding bread and other things, and serving for a 
table when the meal was not taken in the halL To 
each of these wards a nurse w^as (and is still) assigned, 
who was usually the w^idow of some decent member 
of a city guild. " Our dress w^as of the coarsest and 
quaintest kind, but w^as respected out of doors, and is 
so still. I believe it w^as the ordinary dress of 
children in humble life during the reign of the 
Tudors. We used to flatter ourselves that it was 
taken from the monks ; and there w^ent a monstrous 
tradition that at one period it consisted of blue velvet 
and silver buttons ! It was said also that during the 
blissful era of the blue velvet we had roast mutton 
for supper. 

" To say the truth, we were not too well fed at 
that time, either in quantity or quality. Our break- 
fast was bread and water, for the beer was too bad to 
drink. The bread consisted of the half of a three 
penny loaf, according to the prices then current. 
This was not much for growing boys, who had 
had nothing to eat from six or seven o'clock the 
preceding evening. For dinner we had the same 
quantity of bread, with meat only every other day, 



Cueist IJospital. 159 

and tliat consisting of a suial] slice, sncli as would be 
given to an infant three or four years old. Yet even 
that, with all our hunger, we frequently left half- 
eaten, the meat was so tough. On the other days we 
had a milk-porridge, ludicrously thin ; or rice-milk, 
which was better. There were no vegetables or 
puddings. Once a month we had roast beef, and 
twice a year a dinner of pork. One was roast, 
the other boiled, and on the latter occasion we had 
our only pudding, which was of pease. For supper 
we had a like piece of bread, with butter or cheese, 
and then to bed, ' with what appetite we might.' " 
Of course, these sordid times have long since given 
place to something more generous. 

In Leigh Hunt's day the routine was about as fol- 
lows : The boys rose at the call of a bell at six in 
summer and seven in winter, and after washing and 
dressing went at the call of another bell to breakfast. 
All this took up about an hour. From breakfast 
they proceeded to school until eleven, when followed 
an hour's play. Dinner took place at twelve, and 
tliere was a brief playtime till one, when school was 
again in session till five in summer and four in winter. 
At six came supper, and in summer play-time till 
eight. But in winter bed-time followed immediately 



160 SciiooL-BoY Life in Merrie England. 

on the lieels of the evening meal. On Sundays the 
school-time of the otlier days was spent in churcli 
both morning and evening ; and, says Hunt, " As the 
Bible was read to us every day before every meal, 
and on going to bed, besides prayers and graces, we 
rivaled the old monks in the religious part of our 
duties." The reader may imagine a large church, 
(Christ Church, Newgate Street), with six hundred 
boys seated up in the air on each side of the organ, 
the minister and a few maid-servants tilling the valley 
beneath. " We did not dare to go to sleep. We were 
not allowed to read. The great boys used to get 
those who sat behind them to play with their hair. 
Some whispered to their neighbors, and the others 
thought of their lessons and tops. I can safely say 
that many of us would have been good listeners, and 
most of us attentive ones, if the clergyman could 
have been heard. As it was, I talked as well as the 
rest, or thought of my exercises. Sometimes we 
could not help joking and laughing over our weari- 
ness, and then the fear was lest the steward had seen 
us. It was part of the business of the steward to pre- 
side over the boys in church-time. He sat aloof, in a 
place where he could view the whole of his flock. 
There was a ludicrous kind of revenue we had of him 



Christ Hospital. IGl 

wlienever a particular part of the Bible was read. 
This was the parable of the Unjust Steward. The 
boys waited anxiously till the passage was com- 
menced ; and then, as if by a general conspiracy, at 
the words 'thou unjust steward' the whole school 
turned their eyes upon this unfortunate officer. We 
were persuaded that the more unconscious he looked 
the more he was acting." 

"When Leigh Hunt entered the school he was 
shown three gigantic boys — young men, rather, for 
the eldest was between seventeen and eighteen — who, 
he was told, were going to the University. These 
were the Grecians of his day — the three head boys of 
the Grammar School. The next class to these w^as the 
Deputy Grecians. These two classes and the head 
boys of the Navigation School held a certain rank 
over the whole place, both in school and out. In- 
deed, the whole of the Navigation School, upon the 
strength of cultivating their valor for the navy and 
being called King's Boys, had succeeded in establish- 
ing an extraordinary pretension to respect. This 
they sustained in a manner as laughable as it was 
grave in its reception. It was an etiquette among 
them never to move out of a right line as they 

walked, whoever stood in their way. If aware of 
11 



1G2 School-Boy Life in Mekkie EnglxVnd. 

their coming the smaller boys got out of their way ; 
if not, down they went, one or more, away rolled 
the toy or the marbles, and on walked the future 
captain ! 

Of course, such things do not exist nowadays. 
Christ Hospital is changed for the better, as the times 
have changed. If it is not so aristocratic and exclu- 
sive a foundation as Eton or Harrow, it yet has a 
sturdy democracy and independence all its own, and, 
all things considered, Leigh Hunt's eulogium is prob- 
ably pretty near the truth: " Perhaps there is not a 
foundation in the country so truly English, taking 
that word to mean what Englishmen wish it to mean 
— something solid, unpretending, of good character, 
and free to all." 




WESTMINSTER SCHOOL. 

''IN PATRIAM POPULUMQUE." 



Westminster School 



(ST. PETER'S COLLEGE.) 




IN" Dean's Yard, Westminster, 
under the shadow of the noble 
abbey where shmiber some of 
England's noblest sons, stands 
St. Peter's College, better known 
as Westminster School. 

It is a royal foundation of great an- 
tiquity. There was probably a school or 
seminary here from the founding of the 
abbey, and until the middle of the sixteenth century 
St. Peter's College was its name. But after the 
Eeformation, in 1560, it was re-founded and reor- 
ganized by Queen Elizabeth as Westminster School, 
though, as Mr. Staunton well says, the royal founda- 
tion was no more the origin of the school than the 
Eeformation was the origin of the Church of En- 
gland. Ingulphus, who was private secretary to 



166 School-Boy Life in Merrie England. 

William the Conqueror, says that there was a boys' 
school at Westminster which he himself had at- 
tended ; and the old chronicler Stow records that 
at Smithfield there was an annual examination or 
competition in grammar, at which the scholars of 
St. Peter's would hold the lists against all comers. 

When Henry Eighth drove the monks out of West- 
minster provision was made for a school in the plan 
for the new establishment. During the reign of 
Mary the whole school was neglected, but when 
stanch Protestant Queen Bess ascended the throne 
the scheme was revived as her father liad laid it 
down, and by Henry's statutes the institution has 
ever since been governed. James First, in the liftli 
year of his reign, confirmed the acts of his prede- 
cessor. During the Cromwellian rule the church 
and school at Westminster were suppressed for a 
time, but in 1649 Parliament passed an act for the 
regulation of the school, and at the Restoration the 
learned and amiable Dr. John Earle became Dean of 
Westminster, and under his fostering care the school 
greatly prospered. Since his day no changes of im- 
portance have occurred. 

The school buildings stand in Little Dean's Yard, 
and consist of the school itself, the Library, the Col- 



Westminster School. 167 

lege Dormitory, the College Hall, and several board- 
ing-houses for the commoners. The noble gateway 
is attributed to Inigo Jones. The school is of great 
antiquitj^ it having been originally the dormitory of 
the monks of St. Peter. The roof is formed of 
massive beams of chestnut, and at the upper end is a 
recess or apse which once doubtless contained an altar. 
This apse is termed, in school parlance, the "Shell," 
which is the name given to the Fifth Form, whose 
seats are there (the same name is found at Harrow and 
Charterhouse). Around this room are the scholars' 
benches, and every-where on the w^ainscoted walls are 
the carven names of former scholars, as many as six 
generations of one family, sons following fathers, 
being visible. Tlie feeling of love for alma iiiater^ 
so noticeable among English Public School boys, is 
more intense among Westminsters than any others, 
and to them there is no chamber in the wide world 
that possesses half the interest of the old school-room. 
" The Upper and Lower Schools," says Mr. Staun- 
ton, "were originally divided by a bar from which 
a curtain was suspended. In connection with this 
curtain a remarkable story will be found in No. 313 
of the Sjpectator. It is told of a boy who was saved 
by a school-fellow when at Westminster from a cruel 



108 SciiooL-BoY Life in Merkie England. 

flogging at the hands of Dr. Busby for having torn 
asunder the curtain in question. The boy who to 
spare his companion received the punishment is 
known to have been William Wake, the father of 
Archbishop Wake. He took part in the Civil Wars 
on the Royal side, and suffered severely. At length, 
becoming implicated in Penruddock's rising, he was 
seized, and tried for his life at Exeter. It happened 
that the very school-fellow for whom many years 
previously he had undergone the flogging was the 
judge on that Western Circuit. The trial of the 
rebels, as they were then called, was very short, but 
when about to pass sentence upon them the judge, 
liearing the name of his old friend, looked at Wake 
attentively and asked him if he were not formerly 
a Westminster scholar. Being convinced by the an- 
swer that the unfortunate prisoner before him was 
no other than the noble fellow who had taken his 
fault and punishment upon him at school, he deter- 
mined, if possible, to rescue Wake from death. Ac- 
cordingly, when the trial was over, without saying a 
word to any one, the grateful Judge started off at 
once to London, and, by his influence with Cromwell, 
succeeded in saving the life of his early friend. We 
may add that the curtain has long since disappeared, 



Westminster School. 169 

though a singular custom is still kept up at the spot 
where the Upper and Lower Schools are separated. 
On Shrove Tuesday the College cook, preceded by a 
verger, comes into morning school and tosses a pan- 
cake over the bar into the Upper School." 

This queer custom, known as " Tossing the Pan- 
cake," is not the least curious of the many odd ob- 
servances which have fastened themselves on the 
public school life of England. Precisely at noon 
the whole school assembles in the great school hall, 
and the head cook, clad in snowy linen apron, 
sleeves, and cap, proceeds to fry a huge pancake. 
When one side is done he grips the big frying-pan 
in both hands, and deftly turns the other side by 
tossing it in the air. This is termed the "little 
toss," and is watched with deep anxiety by all the 
scholars present. When it is successfully performed 
(as it generally is), a deeply breathed "Ah!" 
springs from ^ve hundred throats, and the browning 
process goes on. At length the fateful moment ar- 
rives, the pancake is done, and the cook mounts to 
the master's dais, and with a mighty effort tosses 
the huge cake high in air over the bar into tlie 
midst of the crowd of waiting urchins. J^ot a 
morsel ever touches the ground, for a hundred 



170 School-Boy Life in Meerie England. 

hands are ready to seize it, and tliose lucky ones 
who manage to catch a piece lose no tiuie in de- 
vouring it, smoking hot and covered witli grime. 
A similar custom is reported at Eton and Charter- 
house. 

The walls of the dormitory are crowded with the 
names of old queen's scholars, and at the upper end 
of the room on the right-hand side are a number of 
tablets affixed to the walls bearing the names of the 
captains of the school in gilt letters. Amongst these, 
the names of William Murray, Charles Churchill, 
Warren Hastings, Charles Abbot, and Charles Thomas 
Longley, are especially noticeable. 

Leaving college, and going through the dark 
cloister, the visitor will find the gymnasium on his 
right, situated in the early Norman crypt which 
forms the substructure of the great school-room. 
Turning to the left, along the western cloister, he 
w^ill pass by the side of "Fighting Green," formerly 
the scene of many a fierce encounter before "first 
school," and in days of yore the peaceful resting 
place of the humbler brethren of the monastery. 
The passage through the old archway on the right 
leads past the door of the deaneiy into a courtyard, 
on the left-hand side of which is the college hall. 



Westminster School. 171 

It is approached by a covered staircase, and was 
originally the refectory of the abbot's house. The 
hall was built by Abbot Litlington, in the reign of 
Edward Third, and is probably the room where Eliza- 
beth Woodville, the queen of Edward Fourth, was 
received by Abbot Oseney on the occasion of Ei ch- 
ard Third's conspiracy against his nephews. After 
the final reconstruction of the Abbey by Queen 
Elizabeth tlie abbot's refectory became the hall of 
the whole collegiate estaWishment. In course of 
time the dean and prebendaries withdrew, and the 
hall was left to the scholars, who still use it as their 
dining place. The "Election" dinner, which is 
given by the governing body to the examiners and 
a number of old Westminsters, takes place here 
every year, when epigrams are recited by the boys 
during dessert time. The ponderous tables of elm 
are said to have been made out of the wreckage of 
the Spanish Armada, and to be marked in several 
places by the cannon-balls of the English ships, but 
the tradition seems somewhat hazy and doubtful. 
The inclosure in Great Dean's Yard is known by the 
name of " Green," and here vigorous games of foot- 
ball are played at odd times between school-hours. 
Outside the archway and in front of the west door 



172 School-Boy Life in Merrii-: England. 

of the Abbey stands a polished granite column 
erected to the memory of the old Westminsters who 
fell in the Crimean War and the Indian Mutiny. 
Field-Marshal Lord Raglan, Lieutenant-General Fred- 
erick Markham, and General Sir William Barnard are 
amongst the names of those thus commemorated. 
Vincent Square, where the boys play cricket, is un- 
fortuately more than half a mile from the school. 

Facing the entrance to Great Dean's Yard stands 
the grimy doorway, also designed by Inigo Jones, 
and covered with the names of old Westminsters, 
carved deeply in the stone, through which is the 
approach to the great school-room. The room on the 
right, above the two flights of steps, was until lately 
known as the Library. The Sixth are no longer 
taught here, and it is now used as the music room. 
The cupola of the ceiling is handsomely decorated 
in the Italian style of the seventeenth century, but 
the room is somewhat dull and gloomy, owing to 
the trees in College Garden, which block out the 
light from the only window. The great school-room 
is of magnificent proportions, being nearly 110 feet 
long and 44 feet high. It was formerly part of the 
monks' dormitory, and was converted to its present 
purpose in pursuance of a Chapter order dated the 



Westminster School. 173 

3d of December, 1591 ; the smaller and northern 
part being devoted to the Chapter Librar3^ The 
massive open timber roof of chestnut, which is very 
similar to that of Westminster Hall, is said to be of 
the thirteenth century. 

On all sides of the room are the names of old 
Westminsters painted on the wall, hacked out on 
the benches, and even executed in nails on the floor. 
A great number, however, of the older names on 
the wall have unfortunately been destroyed from 
time to time, and it is to be hoped that in future 
more care will be taken of them, as they certainly 
constitute one of the most interesting features of the 
school-room. Coming down the school steps the 
visitor will find the entrance to college on his left 
in the corner of the racket court. The present 
building is not much more than a hundred and sixty 
years old, having been built from the designs of 
Eichard Boyle, Earl of Burlington, in the third 
decade of the eighteenth century, in the place of 
the old monastic granary, which had at length fallen 
into decay after being used for nearly two hundred 
years as the scholars' dormitory. Here the forty 
scholars, who still wear the distinctive dress of cap 
and gown, live. 



174 SciiooL-BoY Life in-Mekrie England. 

On the western side of the college gardens is the 
dormitory, a structure erected during the early years 
of the eighteenth century, but which is familiar to 
tlie general public on account of a very old and 
equally unique custom, founded by request of Queen 
EHzabeth lierself, and religiously observed to this 
day. 

This time-honored custom at "Westminster is the 
acting of one of Terence's comedies by the boys, just 
before the Christmas holidays, for the amusement of 
their friends, who are invited. A small contribution 
is afterward taken up for the benefit of tlie captain 
of tlie school, or head boy, to assist his progress 
through the university. Oddly enough, the dor- 
mitory is the scene of this event, the completion of 
which was celebrated by Elkanah Settle, the bitter 
rival of John Dryden, in a Latin poem. Both these 
men were old Westminsters, yet, while Dry den's 
name is still green. Settle's is chiefly remembered on 
account of the mauling he got under the name of 
Doeg in Absalom, and AcJiitophel, and for the sim- 
ilar treatment which Pope accorded him in The 
D unclad. 

The performance of the Westminster play was 
really designed to keep up the spirit of classical 



Westminster School. 175 

education and to make the scholars familiar with the 
Latin vernacular. At first, of course, the scenery and 
costumes were very crude, but of late years both have 
been greatly improved and beautified. Singularly 
enough, it was for attending one of these Westmin- 
ster plays that Milton was attacked by an enemy, and 
charged with " haunting play-houses " — a charge 
which the sturdy old Puritan vigorously repels. In 
1817, when there was talk of abolishing the custom, 
a remonstrance w^as addressed to the Dean and Chap- 
ter, signed by six hundred old Westminsters, who 
expressed it as tlieir " firm and deliberate belief, 
founded on experience and reflection, that the abo- 
lition of the Westminster play cannot fail to prove 
prejudicial to the interests and prosperity of the 
school." 

Here are a few names of great men who attended 
Westminster School in boyhood : Dryden ; l^icholas 
Rowe ; Charles Wesley ; Richard Cumberland ; Wil- 
liam Cowper; the poet Cowley; Edmund Burton, 
D.D. ; Richard Busby, wdio afterward was Head- 
master in John Dry den's time ; Dr. South ; Charles 
Churchill, the poet ; Edward Gibbon ; Ben Jonson ; 
White Kennet, the prelate ; John Locke, the philos- 
opher ; and Zachary Pearce. Nine archbishops and 



176 School-Boy Life in Merrie England. 

three-score bishops are on the roll, besides as many 
ministers equally famous. Of great lawyers educated 
there we may name Heneage Finch, known to the 
profession as " the Father of Equity ; " Earl Cowper, 
twice Lord Chancellor; Robert Henley, also twice 
Chancellor ; Sir Thomas Clarke, Master of the Rolls ; 
the great Lord Mansfield ; Sir Francis Buller ; 
Lord Chief Baron Macdonald, and Sir David Dun- 
das, Solicitor-General. Of statesmen she claims 
such names as Sir Harry Yane ; Halifax, " the 
Trimmer ; " the Earl of Bath ; the Marquis of Lans- 
downe ; Warren Hastings, " the great Indian Pro- 
consul ; " and Lord John Russell. Seven field mar- 
shals of the British army also sprang from Westmin- 
ster; namely, Henry Paget, Marquis of Anglesea; 
Thomas Grosvenor; John Byng; Stapleton Cotton, 
and Lord Raglan. These are noble names, and yet 
the list is incomplete, for among British poets and 
authors Westminster claims, in addition to those 
named at the head of this paragraph, Matthew Prior, 
Rowe, John Locke, Thomas Sheridan, both the Col- 
mans, Richard Cumberland, Home Tooke, and Rob- 
ert Soutliey. Sir Christopher Wren, the architect, 
whose monument is St. Paul's Cathedral, was also 
a Westminster. 



Westminster School. 177 

The followinoj details as to admission are essential 
to a proper idea of the working of the school : 

The foundation of Queen Elizabeth consists of 
forty queen's scholars, who live together in the 
college buildings. The admission to vacancies is 
by open competition. 

Competitors for queen's scholarships are called 
minor candidates. 

There are also twelve exhibitioners, who may live 
either in a boarding house or at home. The exhi- 
bitions are tenable for two years, or until the holder 
is elected upon the foundation ; but deserving boys 
may be re-elected. 

Queen's scholars and exhibitioners hold their 
scholarships and exhibitions subject to an annual 
examination, in which any boy failing to satisfy the 
examiner of his industry and progress forfeits, if a 
scholar, his place on the foundation, or, if an exhi- 
bitioner, his exhibition. 

The age of admission for town boys or boys not 
on the foundation is ordinarily from ten to four- 
teen years. As soon as possible after deciding to 
send their sons to the school, it is desirable that 
parents should seek an interview with the Head- 
master, to discuss the preparation required. An 
12 



178 School-Boy Life in Mekkie England. 

entrance examination is held at the beginning of 
each term. 

There is a preparatory school in connection with 
Westminster in which the course of work is arranged 
to lead up to the under forms. 

Town boys may board at one of the boarding 
houses, wholly (boarders) or partially (half -boarders) ; 
or entirely at home (home boarders). 

Before the admission of any boy into the school a 
certificate of good conduct and character is required 
from his former master or tutor. This certificate is 
in all cases to be sent to the Head-master. 

'No boy is allowed to remain in the school after 
the end of the term in which he shall be nineteen 
years of age. 

The school-hours are ordinarily from 9 A. M. to 
12.30 P. M., with an interval of fifteen minutes, and 
from 3.30 to 5 P. M. There is a morning prepara- 
tion school for boarders. At 9 A. M. the school 
meets in the Abbey for a short service. 

The school holidays are four weeks at Christmas, 
eight weeks in August and September, and three 
weeks midway between the close of the Christmas 
and the beginning of the summer vacation, Easter 
being included as often as is practicable. All boarders 



Westminster School. 179 

shall be in their houses before G P. M. of the day 
fixed for their return, and shall bring a note, signed 
by the parent or guardian, stating the hour at which 
they left home. 

The sports in vogue at Westminster are boating, 
cricket, fives, racquet, football, quoits, sparring, foot- 
races, pole-leaping, and the good old English game 
of single-stick. From its situation, on the bank of 
the Thames, the school has equal facilities for the 
first-named diversion with Eton, and the two schools 
contest constantly for the aquatic championship. 
Fencing has lately come into vogue, and swimming 
is taught at the baths. No scholar is allowed in the 
boats until he is a proficient swimmer. 

The system of fagging at Westminster is only 
equaled in severity by the punishments. These latter 
consist of heavy "impositions" of Latin or Greek 
tasks; confinement in the school precincts, refusal of 
" leave out," flogging with the birch, and, for extreme 
cases, expulsion. The two latter are of rare occur- 
rence nowada^^s. The flogging takes place in a room 
at the back of the school, and is administered by the 
Ilead-master in the presence of a third person, one of 
the boys. 

Here is a current story about punishment at West- 



180 School-Boy Life in Mereie England. 

minster wliicli the bojs are never tired of repeating : 
"A boy named by the monitor was ordered to ' stand 
out.' He took his place clear of the desks in the 
gangway of the school, and, with the certainty of 
punishment hanging over him, had to wait there until 
a file of talkers had been collected. When the row 
of the condemned had become somewhat long, and 
when there was a pause in the occupation of the auto- 
crat, the chastening began. For this offense the sen- 
tence mostly took effect on the palms of the hands, 
and the two strings, one of culprits coming up to the 
ordeal, the other of victims with quivering hands 
tucked under their arms, and howling, groaning, or 
with difficulty repressing their emotion as they wound 
their way back to their seats, might possibly have 
been objects replete with interest to a student of hu- 
man nature, but were too common to excite much 
attention among us. There w^as one little imp, as I 
remember, who used skillfully to slip across from the 
advancing column, hug his hands, and howl as if he 
had been smitten, and so get back unscathed to his 
place. It was a dangerous trick, the penalty of which, 
if it had been detected, I dare not contemplate. I 
know but of this one boy who tried it." 

Westminster School has always been famed for its 



Westminster School. 181 

loyalty to the monarchy of England. Richard Owen, 
the eloquent Dean of Christ Church, and the great 
favorite of Oliver Cromwell, declared that " it would 
never be well with the nation till Westminster School 
were suppressed." In 1642, when a mob of Puritans 
attacked the Abbey, the Westminster boys aided in 
the defense, and we read that the mob " would have 
pulled down the organs and some ornaments of the 
church, and for this end had forced out a pane of tlie 
north door and got entrance ; but meeting with a 
stout resistance from the scholars, quiremen, officers, 
and their servants, they were driven out ; and one 
Wiseman, a Knight of Kent, who had undertaken the 
conduct of the mob for that day's service, was killed 
by a tile from the battlements." 

On the very day on which Charles the First was 
executed, Robert South, the brilliant preacher and 
wit, records that the king was publicly prayed for in 
the school. It will be remembered that South was 
the boy of whom Busby, with characteristic penetra- 
tion, remarked : " I see great talents in that sulky 
boy, and I shall endeavor to bring them out." In the 
virtue of the rod Busby had an infallible belief, call- 
ing it " his sieve," and saying that " whoever did not 
pass through it was no boy for him." But though 



182 School-Boy Life in Merkie England. 

the strictest of disciplinarians Busby was both loved 
and respected by his scholars. His monument stands 
against the wainscot of the choir, opposite the south 
transept, side by side with those of South and Yin- 
cent. From this monument it is generally supposed 
that all the numerous portraits of Busby have been 
copied, for, according to tradition, lie is said to have 
resolutely refused to sit to any painter in his lifetime. 
If we are to believe Tom Brown, the likeness to the 
original must have been most successfully caught by 
the sculptor, as he tells us that Busby's "pupils, when 
they come by, look as pale as his marble in remem- 
brance of his severe exactions." Readers, too, of the 
Spectator will remember that it was before this mon- 
ument that Sir Koger de Coverley stood in awe and 
exclaimed : " Dr. Busby, a great man ; whipped my 
grandfather ; a very great man ! I should have gone 
to him myself if I had not been a blockhead ; a very 
great man ! " 

In 1718 William Murray, the future brilliant Lord 
Chief Justice of England, came to the school. He 
rode, we are told, all the way from his home in Scot- 
land, attended by an old family servant, on a Gallo- 
way pony. A curious account of his expenses has 
been preserved, in which, besides the payment of one 



Westminster School. 183 

guinea " to Dr. Freind for entrance," the charge of 
one guinea for a sword and four guineas for two wigs 
is duly entered. In these days of general depression 
of trade parents may at least be thankful that they 
have no longer to provide wigs and sw^ords for their 
sons on their entrance to a public school. While at 
Westminster, Murray gave early proofs of his extraor- 
dinary abilities, and in 1723 was elected to Christ 
Church. 

It is related of him that when spending a half- 
holiday at Lady Kinnoul's house he was found com- 
posing a Latin theme for a school exercise. On being 
asked by his hostess what the subject was, he laugh- 
ingly answered, " What is that to you ? " Her lady- 
ship being greatly shocked at his apparent rudeness, 
Murray was obliged to explain to her that he had 
simply answered her question by giving the English 
translation of the thesis, which was — Quid ad te 
pertinet f 

Though Cowper was by natural temperament unfit 
to rough it with other boys, his recollection of his 
school-days at Westminster w^ere of a pleasurable 
character. In one of his letters he writes : " He who 
cannot look forward with comfort must find what 
comfort he can in looking backward. Upon this 



184 SciiooL-BoY Life in Merrie England. 

principle I, the otlier day, sent my imagination upon 
a trip thirty years behind me. She was very obedient 
and very swift of foot, presently performed her jour- 
ney, and at last set me down in the sixth form at 
Westminster. I fancied myself once more a school- 
boy, a period of life in which, if I had never tasted 
true happiness, I was at least equally unacquainted 
with its contrary. . . . Accordingly, I was a school-boy 
in high favor with the master ; received a silver groat 
for my exercise, and had the pleasure of seeing it 
sent from form to form for the admiration of all who 
were able to understand it." Cowper again alludes to 
this method of reward then prevalent at the school in 
those lines in his Tahle Talk : 

" At Westminster, where little poets strive 
To set a distich upon six and five, 
Where discipline helps opening buds of sense, 
And makes his pupils proud with silver pence, 
I was a poet too." 

These customary rewards are now distributed on 
the occasion of the yearly recitation of epigrams " up 
school," and the Head-master still applies to the au- 
thorities for the three pounds of Maundy money to 
which the school is entitled every year. 



Merchant Taylors' School. 

J^lotto : 

"HOMO PLANTAT, HOMO IRRIGAT SED DEU5 
DAT INCREMENTUM." 



Merchant Taylors' School, 




HE trade guilds or societies of the 
English metropolis have from 
time immemorial played an im- 
portant part in its history. They 
are all of them very wealthy, and 
every master craftsman or tradesman of 
any note belongs to some particular guild. 
Foremost among these societies ranks the 
*^" Company of Merchant Taylors," on ac- 
count of its age, its respectability, and its affluence. 
Stow, the old chronicler of English events, says that 
the origin of the fraternity is lost in the mist of 
antiquity; its charter was confirmed by King Ed- 
ward First, and it counts among its members at dif- 
ferent times "ten English sovereigns, four foreign 
potentates, and a number of dukes, earls, barons, 
churchmen, and distinguished characters in various 
walks of life." 



188 School-Boy Life in Merrie England. 

About the year 1561 this rich and honorable so- 
ciety decided to establish in the heart of the " city " a 
grammar school " for the better education and bring- 
ing up of children in good manners and literature." 
The requisite funds were soon subscribed, and a piece 
of property called the " Manor of the Rose," situated 
in tlie parish of St. Lawrence Poultney, which had 
originally been the residence of several noble fam- 
ilies. The changes needful to fit the premises to 
their new uses were speedily made, and in 1562 the 
school was opened with 250 scholars, the statutes 
being almost the same as those drawn up for St. 
Paul's School by the famous Dean Colet. 

The school rapidly increased in popularity, and the 
applications for admission soon exceeded the accom- 
modations. Many eminent and learned men figured 
as head-masters during the next fifty years, and the 
prosperity of Merchant Taylors' School was as- 
sured. In 1603, and again in 1665, it became neces- 
sary to close its doors on account of a visitation of 
the plague ; and in 1666 the Great Fire reduced the 
buildings to a heap of ashes. They were rebuilt in 
1675, the studies having been carried on meanwhile 
in premises rented for the emergency. These new 
buildings consisted of a long and spacious school- 



Merchant Taylors' School. 189 

room, a library building, and the master's liouse. In 
these surroundings the school- continued its good 
work to our own day, until the need of a roomier 
and more modern structure became apparent. 

In July, 1866, negotiations were concluded with 
the trustees of Charterhouse School for the sale of 
the play-ground of that institution, and on August 
20, 1867, an act was passed by Parliament which 
gave powers for the sale of the school site of Char- 
terhouse to the Merchant Taylors' Company and for 
the removal of Merchant Taylors' School from Suf- 
folk Lane to the ground theretofore occupied by 
Charterhouse School. The ground thus sold was in 
extent five acres, two roods, and the price paid for it 
was £90,000. Thus very important advantages, says 
William Haig Brown, were secured for both of these 
ancient foundations. Charterhouse by its constitu- 
tion was a school for boarders. In the confined and 
unsuitable site on which it stood it languished and 
declined. On that site no power could maintain the 
long-established reputation of Charterhouse School ; 
and it was firmly believed by almost all who knew 
it that its revival could only be effected by a migra- 
tion to "fresh fields and pastures new." This 
opinion has been amply justified. Merchant Tay- 



190 SciiooL-BoY Life m Merkie England. 

loi's' School was established as a day-school, and as 
uuch the very features which were obnoxious to a 
boarding-school like Charterhouse became of value 
for those lads whose residences were in the heart of 
the city, and whose convenience demanded a school 
near their homes. The Merchant Taylors' Company 
immediately proceeded to erect new buildings. 

Although none but day pupils are recognized by 
the school statutes, yet some of the masters keep 
boarding-houses for the convenience of some of the 
scholars ; yet these houses are in no way connected 
with the school, nor is the system encouraged by the 
company. 

The number of scholars is limited to two hundred 
and fifty. To be eligible for admission a boy must 
be between the ages of nine and thirteen ; at the 
former age he must be able to read and write fairly 
well, have learned the rudiments of Latin, and be 
acquainted with the main facts in Bible history and 
with the Church Catechism. If over eleven years of 
age when nominated he must be qualified to enter 
the Third Form, and if thirteen he must be able to 
pass the examination for the Upper Division Form. 
From the time of the foundation the course of study 
has embraced Hebrew, the classics, writing, and 



Merchant Taylors' School. 191 

arithmetic ; mathematics was first taught in 1829 ; 
French and Modern History in 1846 ; drawing in 
1856; writing from dictation in 1857; and in 1868 
a conniiercial course was introduced. 

The boys of Merchant Taylors' are graded into the 
following classes : 

Head Form. Upper Division. 

Sixth Form. Lower Division. 

Upper Fifth Form. Third Form. 

Lower Fifth Form. Second Form. 

Fourth Form. First Form. 

There are more than fifty scholarships averaging 
£60 = $300 a year each as incentives to good work — 
splendid incentives to emulation in a school of two 
hundred and fifty boys, as Mr. Staunton justly re- 
marks. There are also yearly prizes, ranging in 
value from fifty guineas ($250) to three pounds ($15) 
offered by past or present wealthy friends of the 
school. 

We have said that Merchant Taylors' is a day-school 
purely. Consequently there is no fagging — a fact 
that makes the foundation singular among the sister- 
hood of schools. The monitors have no arbitrary 
powers, their duties consisting simply of the correction 
of the papers of the younger boys. The p)unishments 



192 SciiooL-BoY Life in Meerie England. 

are few. ^' Flogging," which the Head-master alone 
has the right to inflict, is exceedingly rare. The 
under-masters employ the cane for neglect or inat- 
tention, but grave offenses are reported to the head of 
the school. Occasionally an offender is reprimanded 
before all the boys, which is found to have a most 
salutary effect. 

So much for the internal economy of Merchant 
Taylors'. Let us now glance at the sports and holi- 
days. Owing to the fact that the great majority of 
the boys live at home, and also to the fact that the play- 
ground is limited in area, the calendar of sports at 
Merchant Taylors' is not a long one. The company 
rents a field in the outskirts for cricket and foot-ball, 
which are really the only school games pursued. 
School hours are from 9.15 A. M. to 1, and from 
2 to 3.45 P. M. The holidays consist of two weeks at 
Easter, six weeks at midsummer, and four weeks at 
Christmas. In addition there is no school on the 
following days : Anniversary of the death of Charles 
First, Ash Wednesday, Ascension Day, the Queen's 
Birthday (May 24), and Lord Mayor's Day (Nov. 9). 
The Head-master is also empowered to grant a day's 
holiday four times a year, and every Saturday after- 
noon in term time is a regular holiday. Altogether 



Mekciiant Taylors' School. 193 

the boys are in scliool about tliirty-nine weeks in the 
year. 

" The list of eminent men who were indebted to 
Merchant Taylors' School for their early culture is a 
proud one," says Mr. Staunton. " Of ecclesiastical 
dignitaries of the highest rank she can boast, among 
others, of the celebrated William Juxon, who was in 
attendance on Charles First when he was beheaded, 
and wlio at the Restoration w^as translated from the 
See of London to that of Canterbury ; William Dawes 
and John Gilbert, Archbishops of York ; and Hugh 
Boulter, Archbishop of Armagh. 

" The most conspicuous of her bishops are Lancelot 

Andrewes, Bishop of Winchester, of whom it was 

said, ' He possessed as many and as great virtues as 

human nature could receive or industry perfect;' 

Thomas Dove, Bishop of Peterborough, chaplain to 

Queen Elizabeth, who, from his flowing white locks, 

called him ' the Dove w^ith silver wings ; ' Matthew 

Wren, Bishop of Ely ; John Buckeredge, also of 

Ely, Giles Thompson, Bishop of Gloucester, and 

Peter Mews, Bishop of Winchester. In law, in 

letters, in medicine, and in other departments of 

intelligence the school is nobly represented by such 

men as Sir James Whitelocke, Justice of Common 
13 



194 SciiooL-BoY Life m Mekkii': England. 

Pleas and of the King's Bench ; Bulstrode White- 
locke, his son ; Thomas Lodge ; Edmund Gajton ; 
Sir Edwin Sandys, the traveler ; James Shirley, the 
dramatist ; William Sherard, founder of the Oxford 
Professorship of Botany which bears his name ; 
Daniel Neale, who wrote The History of the Puri' 
tans; John Byrom ; James Townley ; Eobert, iirst 
Lord Clive ; John Latham, author of the History of 
Birds ; Yicessimus Knox, who wrote the well-known 
book called Knox^s Essays \ Joshua Brookes, the 
most eminent anatomist of his time ; Charles Math- 
ew^s, and his son, Charles James Mathews, the popular 
comedians; Charles Young, tlie tragedian ; Sir Henry 
Ellis, sometime Librarian to the British Museum ; 
Henry Cline, the great surgeon ; Dixon Denham,the 
African traveler ; John Gough Nichols, the antiquary ; 
Sir Samuel Shepherd, Lord Chief Baron of Scotland ; 
Sir R. B. Comyn, Lord Chief Justice of Madras; 
Edward Bond and Samuel Birch, of the British 
Museum ; George Robert Gray, of the Zoological 
Department of the British Museum ; and tlie late 
Albert Smith, the amusing exponent of An Ascent 
of Mont Blanc, 



RUGBY SCHOOL 

NIHIL SINE LABORANDO. 



Rugby School, 



" Coldly, sadly, descends 

The autumn evening. The field, 

Strewn with its dank yellow drifts 

Of withered leaves, and the elms 

Fade into dimness apace, 

Silent; hardly a shout 

From a few boys late at their playl 

The lights come out in the street, 

In the school-room windows; but cold, 

Solemn, unlighted, austere, 

Through the gathering darkness, arise 

The Chapel walls, in whose bounds 

Thou, my father, art laid. 

There thou dost lie, in the gloom 

Of the autumn evening." 

Rughy Chapel, by Matthew Arnold. 

mention of Rugby instantly 

brings to mind two revered 

names — Tliomas Arnold, D.D., 

"Arnold of Rugby," as he is 

called, for fourteen years the 

Head-master of the school, whose noble, 

manly influence molded the lives of so 

many English lads, and Thomas Hughes, 

M.P., himself an old Rugbeian, the founder 




198 School-Boy Life in Merrie England. 

of New Rugby, Tennessee, and to whom English- 
speaking boyhood every-where is indebted for that 
inimitable portraiture of school life under the 
Rugby roof tree, Toiti Browns School-Days, which 
deserves to be read by every lad and placed among 
such juvenile classics as The Pilgrim'' s Progress, 
Robinson Crusoe, and Don Quixote. 

But if it had not been for Lawrence Sheriffe, 
says Mrs. Pennell, '* that book would probably never 
have been written." He was not a very great or 
famous man. He was a London grocer, one of the 
gentlemen of Queen Bess, and, later, second warden 
of the Grocers' Company. But before he died, and 
just about the time when Shakespeare as a little 
boy was toddling through Stratford streets, Lawrence 
Sheriffe made a will in which he gave a certain 
sum of money and part of his lands that a school 
might be built in his native town of Rugby. It 
was to be a free school, he said, only for the chil- 
dren living in that part of the country, and it was 
to be ruled by ''an honeste, discreete, and learned 
man." And so Rugby School was founded. But 
for a long time it was so badly managed, and the 
number of scholars so small, that no one could 
have imagined how great it was one day to become. 



KuGBY School. 199 

After a while, however, matters began to improve. 
Some of the Sheriffe property in London became 
very valuable, and as soon as there was enongh 
money to engage more masters more boys came 
to be taught. But now the same thing happened 
here that has occurred in nearly all the great public 
schools of England. Sons of parents who were 
rich enough to pay for their education were sent 
to Rngby, and before long they outnumbered tlie 
free scholars, for whom the school was really 
founded. It was just about a hundred years ago 
that the Eugby affairs were so much bettered. At 
that time the boys began to come to the school 
not only from the little village that bore the same 
name, and from the other towns and villages of 
Warwickshire, but from all parts of England, so 
that when Dr. Arnold was made Head-master 
Kugby School w^as quite a large institution. Since 
the year 1653 the management of the school has been 
-vested in tw^elve trustees. These were, in 1886 : 

The Earl of Warwick. C. Newdigate Newdegate, Esq. 

Lord Bishop of Worcester. Archdeacon Holbech. 

Lord Leigh. Colonel North. 

Lord Norton. Sir Frederick Peel, K. C. M. G. 

The Earl of Jersey. J. Dugdalc, Esq., Q.C., M.P. 

Lord Brooke. P. A. Muntz, Esq., M.P. 



200 School-Boy Life m Mekrie England. 

Tlie town of Rugby is in Warwickshire, on the 
river Avon — Shakespeare's Avon — about eighty 
miles in a north-westerly direction from London, and 
at the junction of several inij3ortant railway lines. 
Some years ago Dickens gave humorous prominence 
to the place in one of his Christmas stories, under 
the title of "Mugby Junction," in which the dis- 
comforts and oddities of the station and its crowds 
are sketched with a master hand. But the school 
is removed from all the bustle of the town. The 
surrounding country is dotted with pretty hamlets, 
embowered in trees or set in green fields cropped 
by flocks of sheep, and diversified with broad parks 
studded with wide-sprealdng oaks and stately mano- 
rial residences. 

Leaving behind us the roar and rattle of the 
" junction," we set out through the narrow but 
cleanly and queerly paved streets of the old town. 
There seems to be little trade apart from the rail- 
way traffic and tlie supply of the school. Book- 
stores abound, in the windows of whicli are exposed 
for sale photographs of the school, of the beautiful 
chapel, quadrangle, and cloisters, and of favorite 
masters, as well as the latest number of the news- 
paper edited and conducted by the scholars. 



EuGBY School. 201 

At lengtli, after a ratlier liilly walk, the school 
gates come in sight at the end of the street; the 
great oriel window winking and blinking at us 
through its many tiny panes, while grouped around 
stand some of the boys looking, as Tom Brown 
thought, " as if the whole town belonged to them." 
But they are a cheery-faced and pleasant-voiced lot 
of fellows, and under the guidance of one of them 
we are conducted across the quadrangle and into 
the great dining-hall, whose walls are garnished 
with tablets to the memory of those Rugby boys 
who won the highest honors of the school, and wlio 
afterward achieved fame and honor in the busy 
world beyond. Among them are the names of 
Thomas Hughes himself, of Matthew Arnold, son 
of the good doctor, of Samuel Butler, the classicist, 
of Dean Stanley, Earl Derby, Walter Savage Landor, 
and a score of others equally eminent. Here we 
are introduced to one of the tutors, by whom we 
are courteously guided through the historic pile. 
First into tlie recitation rooms, with bare floors and 
vvalls, and having only hard wooden "forms" and 
desks, bearing many scars inflicted by the ruthless 
pocket-knives of generations of boys, and with great 
yawning, cavernous fire-places at either end. 



202 SciiooL-BoY Life in Meerie England. 

Then into the ''studies" — the private rooms of 
the scholars — such as Tom Brown became the de- 
lighted possessor of, the description of which is as 
true to the life in our day as in his : 

" It wasn't very large, certainly, being about six 
feet long by four broad. It couldn't be called'light, 
as there were bars and a grating to the window, 
which little precautions were necessary in the studies 
on the ground-floor, looking out into the close, to 
prevent the exit of small boys after locking up, and 
the entrance of contraband articles. But it was un- 
commonly comfortable to look at, Tom thought. The 
space under the window at the farther end was occu- 
pied by a square table, covered w^ith a reasonably 
clean and whole red-and-blue-check table cloth ; a 
hard-seated sofa, covered with red stuff, occupied one 
side, running up to the end, and making a seat for 
one, or, by sitting close, for two, at the table ; and a 
good, stout wooden chair afforded a seat to another 
boy, so that three could sit and work together. The 
walls were wainscoted half way up, the wainscot being 
covered with green baize, the remainder with a bright- 
patterned paper. 

" Over the door was a row of Jiat-pegs, and on 
each side book-cases with cupboards at the bottom ; 



KcGBY School. 203 

shelves and cupboards being filled indiscriminately 
with school-books, a cup or two, a mouse-trap, and 
brass candlesticks, leather straps, a fustian bag, and 
some curious-looking articles wliich puzzled Tom not 
a little until his friend explained that were climbing- 
irons, and showed their use. A cricket-bat and small 
Hshing-rod stood up in one corner." 

The room is still pointed out where Arthur said 
his prayers, and the room where, in Tom Brown's 
day, the old scholai's used to toss the new boys in 
blankets. 

Then to the chapel, where we see the " oaken 
pulpit, standing out by itself above the school scats ; " 
and though the deserted chamber echoes only our 
own footsteps and our own hushed voices, we can in 
imagination see the noble form of Arnold the Good, 
and in fancy listen to his voice, " now soft as the low 
notes of a flute, now clear and stirring as the call of 
a light infantr}^ bugle, as he stood there, Sunday after 
Sunday, witnessing and pleading for his Lord, the 
King of righteousness and love and glory, with 
whose Spirit he was filled, and in whose name he 
spoke." Fitting is it that his ashes should repose 
beneath the altar of the chapel within whose walls 
some of his best work was done, and that his desk 



204 School-Boy Life in Merkie England. 

and chair should be treasured as relics of great 
price. 

Next out-of-doors again, to the foot ball and the 
cricket fields, where matches are in progress ; to the 
fives courts and round the great play-ground, all 
alive with white-trousered and short-jacketed boys, 
from the child of eight years to the youth of nineteen 
or twenty. 

JSTow let us peep at the home life of the great 
school family. For the benefit of those who have 
not read " Tom Brown," I may say that the school is 
divided into various " houses," one of which a boy 
enters when he joins the school, precisely as, on going 
up to the universities of Oxford or Cambridge, he 
enters some particular " college." Rugby has eight 
of these " houses," and each is under the care of its 
own house-master, who receives the appointed fees, 
provides for the table and other household expenses, 
and assumes the profit or the loss — generally the 
former, and a handsome one at that. Superior to all 
the house-masters is the head-master. A house- 
master's salary — or profit — will range from one thou- 
sand to six thousand dollars a year, while the income 
of the head-master, derived from fees and other 
revemies, is at Rugby about fifteen thousand dollars 



KuGBY School. 205 

a year. But in addition to the rule of the head- 
master (the power felt, but not seen), and that of tlie 
house-master, each " house " is ruled by two Fifth or 
Sixth Form boys, who are largely responsible for its 
order at all times, who settle petty disputes between 
the boys, and who are supposed to see to it that no 
bullying, or sneaking, or viciousness goes unpun- 
ished. Upon the character of these monitors largely 
depends the house for its good or bad order. 

Every pupil now has his own room for purposes 
of study. There are dormitories in which all sleep, 
and sitting-rooms where they gather for social pur- 
poses ; but each boy has his own six-by-four sanctum 
in which, when he " sports his oak " — that is, shuts 
his door — no one may disturb him. This is an un- 
written law, but none the less sacredly kept. 

At half past six every morning in summer, and at 
seven o'clock in winter, the dormitories are the scenes 
of much excitement. Sleepy little boys are routed 
out of their warm nests by livelier urchins ; lazy boys 
slowly drag on their clothes ; mischievous boys play 
mad pranks with the portable property of their neigh- 
bors, and unwilling or laggard fegs go snail-like on 
some errand for his majesty the Sixth Form boy. 

Dressing over, chapel bell rings at seven or seven- 



206 SciiooL-BoY Life in Mp:reie England. 

tJiirtj, wliich is followed fifteen minutes later bj tlie 
first lesson of the day. Then comes breakfast at a 
quarter past eight. At nine-fifteen comes second 
lesson, followed at eleven by third lesson, and thus, 
with brief intermissions, the morning hours pass until 
half-past one, when the great bell tolls for dinner. 
There are two more recitations after dinner, but 
school is "usually over by three o'clock, when two 
hours' play is allowed, until tea-time, at five-thirty. 
In the evening, when tea is over, the boys prepare 
their lessons, the little fellows having tutors four 
evenings in the week, wdiile the upper forms study 
alone in their rooms. 

Tucsdaj, Thursday, and Saturday afternoons there 
are no lessons, and, after "calling over," football, 
cricket, or hare-and-hounds is in order, according to 
the season. On everj^ third Monday there is another 
half-holiday, called " middle week." No one know^s 
or remembers how " middle week " originated ; it is 
an unwritten law which the Eugbeians hope will 
never be repealed. 

The fact is, however, that at certain seasons of the 
year, notably the Christmas and spring terms, the 
" play " on these half-holidays becomes really hard 
work, for immediately after '' C. O." (Rugby slang 



Rugby School. 2 7 

for "calling over") every able-bodied boy, great and 
small, plucky or cowardly, except those in temporary 
ill health, must join in the game of football, or else 
run with the hounds across country. What these 
mandates mean every boy will understand who has 
read " Tom Brown," and recalls the thrilhng descrip- 
tion therein of the first football game witnessed by 
the hero, or the laughable account of the run of the 
Big Side Hare and Hounds, and the mishaps that fell 
to the lot of the trio East, Tom, and Tadpole. 

Once upon a time Rugbeians wore little cocked 
hats and queues, and cadets of noble houses were in 
addition allowed to sport scarlet coats. But nowadays 
the boys are only required to dress in dark suits of 
clothes on ordinary occasions, black and white straw 
hats for every-day wear, with tall silk hats for dress 
occasions. Curiously enough, during a boy's first 
three terms the ribbon around his hat must be black, 
but after that it may be of any color under the sun. 
For football and cricket, however, white trowsers are 
the correct thing. 

From the moment of his entrance at Rugby, and 
his taking up with a certain " house," the boy begins 
to shift for himself. His house gives him a simple 
breakfast of tea and bread and butter ; any thing else 



208 School-Boy Life in Mekkie England. 

lie desires, such as eggs, water-cresses, marmalade, 
potted meats or game, he provides for himself out of 
his allowance of spending money from home. The 
boys all eat together. Dinner is provided by the 
" house," and consists of roast beef or mutton, one 
vegetable, bread ad libitum^ beer, and a simple des- 
sert. A plentiful tea is furnished at six o'clock, and 
the day may be topped off with a hearty supper of 
bread and cheese, cold meat, and beer, before going to 
bed, according to the English custom. The boys 
sleep together in dormitories holding from twenty to 
tliirty boys, the various sleeping-rooms being presided 
over by a Sixth Form boy, called a praepostor. The 
entire school is divided into classes, or " forms," ac- 
cording to scholarship and irrespective of " houses." 
The Sixth Form — the highest — are allowed to break- 
fast in their own rooms, and are also privileged in 
another important respect. The mention of this 
brings us to a feature peculiar to the English public 
schools. 

Such services as polishing shoes, running errands, 
brushing clothes, shopping, " foraging " for meals, 
making tea and toast, serving at fives, and bowling 
at practice games of cricket, and the like, are per- 
formed for the Sixth Form boy by a little fellow in 



Rugby School. 209 

one of the three lowest forms. This is " fagging." 
The " fag " may be, and often is, the scion of a peer, 
while the senior may be the son of a butcher — it 
makes no diiference ; the customs of the school efface 
all social distinctions, and the fag learns to take it as 
a matter of course. It is useless to rebel against this 
time-honored usage, as the experience of the poet 
Shelley shows. At the age of thirteen he was sent 
to Eton, and indignantly refused to fag for any one. 
This drew down on him the anger and indignation of 
the other boys, and his life became a burden. " His 
painful experiences at this period," says one of his 
biographers, " contributed much, no doubt, to the de- 
velopment of that intense hated of established wrong 
which afterward became the ruling passion of his 
life." True enough, says the Old Boy, " the general 
system was rough and hard, and there was bullying in 
nooks and corners, but it never got farther, or dared 
show itself openly, stalking about the passages and 
halls and bed-rooms, and making the life of the 
small boys a continual fear." 

But there is for the fag this cold comfort — every 
boy lias been a fag at some time in his school career. 
Sometimes the fag's duties are merely nominal ; in 

other cases he will serve an exacting master, and will 
14 



210 School-Boy Life in Mekkie England. 

have to bolt liis meals in order to attend to the wants 
of some young autocrat and get up his own lessons. 
Tlien, of course, there must be more or less bullying 
under such a system, and that gross tyranny wliicli 
strong and lusty boys are often too prone to exercise 
over weaker ones ; but, despite these evils, it is doubt- 
ful if the custom of fagging is really harmful. It is 
certainly of benefit in that it is the universal leveler 
of public-school life. 

Yery often, too, the fag's patron becomes a sort of 
protector against the petty meannesses of other boys, 
and there are instances on record of close life-friend- 
ships born of tliis early relation of fag and the one 
fagged for. 

One result of this kind of school training must, I 
fancy, be clear. The boy at the public school is 
pitched on his feet among his fellows — " like a young 
bear, with all his troubles before liim " — to stand or 
fall among them on his own merits of mental or bod- 
ily prowess ; and while the ordeal is doubtless a try- 
ing one to the weak or the foolish, yet the sense of 
personal responsibility induced, which Dr. Arnold 
was so fond of inculcating, must in most cases make 
a boy high-spirited and manly. 

But fagging has seen its best (or worst) days. 



Rugby School. 211 

Nowadays only the Sixth Form can have fags, and 
even the duties are trivial compared with those 
exacted in the past. '^ Think of a boy having to warm 
three or four beds on a bitter cold night by lying in 
them until the warmth of his body had destroyed 
their chill, and then having to rise at four o'clock 
next morning to run two miles to the Avon to attend 
to the fishing-lines of the Sixth Form boys, and be 
back in time for first lesson ! Fancy his being obliged 
to form one of a team of four or twelve in harness to 
be raced around the school-yard, or ' close,' by the prae- 
postor of the Four-in-Hand Club, and compelled to 
make flower-beds for the same mighty being, having 
half a pewter spoon and a whole table-fork for his 
only garden tools, and the flowers to be supplied by 
fair means or foul ! Yet these are only a few speci- 
mens of the tasks formerly set a fag." 

The sports most in vogue at Rugby are foot-ball, 
cricket, fives — described in the chapter on Eton Col- 
lege — and hare-and-hounds. The river is not adapted 
for rowing, but there are good swimming-grounds, 
though none but swimmers are allowed to bathe ex- 
cept under the care of an usher. The fives court is 
a building with solid walls, and the game is played as 
at Eton. On one side of the play-ground are a num- 



212 SciiooL-BoY Life in Mekrie England. 

ber of courts similar to those at Eton, where the 
game is played against the buttressed walls, so that 
the Rugbeian can play this spirited game under the 
same conditions as obtain at Eton, where the game is 
believed to have originated. 

Rugby football has passed into a proverb, and the 
rules which govern the game as played there are in 
vogue on this side of the Atlantic as well as in Aus- 
tralia — wherever, in fact, the game is " scientifically " 
played. It is played chiefly during the Christmas 
term, and every Rugby boy, says one who was not 
long ago head of the school-house team, " looks for- 
ward to it in the summer and regrets it in the spring. 
He honors good football players and despises poor 
ones. He will talk football in season and out of sea- 
son." Rugby football is a very different affair from 
the Eton or the Harrow game, being far rougher, 
though old Rugbeians deplore the fact that it is not 
played half so heartily as it used to be. But even 
now it is rough enough for safety, as any one who 
has witnessed an inter-collegiate game on this side the 
Atlantic can testify. In former days at Rugby the 
contests between the giants of the upper bench (the 
first twelve) of the Sixth Form and the school-house 
were really pitched battles, and more than once the 



Rugby School. 213 

masters had to interfere to prevent serious physical 
injury. 

It is not so very long ago that a set of " revised 
rules" were agreed to, with the object of making the 
sport less brutal, one of them being to this effect : 

" Though it is lawful to hold any player in a maul, 
this holding does not include attempts to throttle or 
strangle, which are totally opposed to all the princi- 
ples of the game." 

And again we read : 

"No one wearing projecting nails or iron plates on 
the soles or heels of his boots or shoes shall be 
allowed to play." 

These "revised rules" (surely they needed revis- 
ing ! ) afford some idea of what Rugby football once 
was. Does not little Tom East exclaim with pride : 
" None of your private school games ! Why, there's 
been two collar-bones broken this half, and a dozen 
fellows lamed, while last year a fellow broke his leg 
in a scrimmage ! " In fact, the technical terms 
"mauling," "butting," "scrimmage," "tripping," 
etc., still in vogue, show that the game is only for 
the swift and the strong, even in its milder modern 
form. 

Nevertheless, Rugby football is a noble and exiiil- 



214: School-Boy Life m Merrie England. 

arating game — for those who like it. Long may the 
sport flourish in its classic English home under the 
" beautiful line of elms," around " the island in the 
farthest corner," and the three trees which, as East 
pointed out to Tom, were " such a tremendous place 
when the ball hangs there." All these landmarks 
may still be seen by the pilgrim who turns his feet 
toward the classic old school town. The chief matches 
of the season are those between the Sixth Form and 
the whole school and that between the "Old Rugs" 
and those of the present, when the last and the pres- 
ent generation mingle in the game they all worship. 
In point of popularity hare-and-hounds stands 
next in the Rugbeian's heart of hearts, and partici- 
pation therein is as compulsory as in cricket or foot- 
ball — save, of course, for those in poor health. There 
are two kinds of runs — the " House " and the " Big 
Side." The House runs are over shorter distances, 
and take place in the early part of the season, and 
in these the little fellows are helped over the Iiard 
places by their stronger or more experienced com- 
rades. But in the Big Side runs the whole school 
turns out, when " every man for himself " is the 
watchword for the day. Of course the little chaps 
often come to grief, as did Tom and East and the 



Rugby School. 215 

Tadpole, their experience being, as Mrs. Pennell 
says, " that of every E-ugbeian. The runs are neces- 
sarily made every year over the same ground, and in 
whicliever direction the boys go they must cross 
plowed fields or green meadows witli sheej) scatter- 
ing on every side ; they must leap over hedges and 
brooks, mount little hills, and jump ditches. And 
fortunate they are, indeed, if the sun shines and the 
grass is dry, and the roads hard ; for in rainy England 
in the writer and early spring the chances are that 
rain or fog will add to the trials of a run. It is hard 
work, of course ; but, tiresome as the runs are, the 
boys find real pleasure and satisfaction in them," 
while the excellent bodily training thus engendered, 
making the young athletes " sound in wind and limb," 
is worth striving after, even at the pains of torn 
clothes and bruised limbs. 

The " school steeple- chase," as the last great run 
of the year is named, is purposely laid out over tlie 
roughest bit of country in the vicinity — over hill 
and dale, across ditch and drain, river and brook, 
plowed land and upland furrow. He who would 
come in first must be prepared to face many a duck- 
ing and many a tumble, but as a reward he will be 
looked up to as a hero among his fellows, and his 



216 School Boy Life in Merrie England. 

name will be handed down to successive generations 
of Rugbeians. 

The summer game is cricket. But Rugby cricket, 
though a finely played game, cannot compare with that 
of Eton or Harrow, nor is it followed with the same 
intensity as the other sports. Then, the racquet and 
the fives courts have their attractions. Boating there is 
none, though swimming may be enjoyed in the Avon 
or in the fine new bath in the school close. Besides 
these more active forms of amusement, there are 
botanical, geological, entomological, and archaeolog- 
ical societies, a bicycle club, debating and Shakes- 
peare societies, and the school magazine ; so that the 
liugbeian need not lack for recreation to agree with 
his particular bent. For those w^iose bent is toward 
a soldier's life there is a volunteer company, entitled 
*'F Company, 2d Yolunteer Battalion Eoyal War- 
wickshire Eegiment," officered and manned by 
Eugbeians. 

We have seen how the Eugby boys eat, and sleep, 
and play, but they also have to work. The number 
of scholars is about five hundred, and tliough nearly 
all the public schools were aft'ected by the Public 
Schools Act of 1868, Eugby among the rest, and 
marked changes — mostly for the better — were made 



Rugby School. 217 

in the studies pursued and in the mode of teaching, 
yet the Rugby of to-day is not essentially different 
from the Rugby of fifty years ago. 

Latin and Greek, as in all these schools, are among 
the principal studies, boys from nine to fifteen read- 
ing Horace, Livy, and Yirgil, and Homer and Eurip- 
ides, in the original, translating, construing, and 
parsing. To these are added history, grammar, 
music, chemistry, science, Bible study, drawing, natu- 
ral history, and mathematics, the last in the higher 
forms. The list of prizes to be striven for is a long and 
valuable one. Thus, among many other incentives, 
prizes are given every year for collections of wild 
flowers, insects, and fossils, made in the neighborhood 
of Rugby. A prize is given for collections of dried 
plants made anywhere in ths summer holidays. A 
prize is given for a collection of Lepidoptera (butter- 
flies and moths) made anywhere in the summer holi- 
days. They must be arranged and labeled with the 
Latin names. All of these prizes are open to the 
whole school. An old Rugbeian gives a prize of the 
value of three guineas annually for the boy in the 
sixth form who in the July examination stands first 
in general Bible knowledge and in the special Greek 
Testament subject. 



218 School-Boy Life in Mekrie England. 

Rugby School is jDeculiiirly favored by the country- 
squire class and the smaller landed gentry of England. 
If not so famous, so costly, or so richly endowed as 
Eton or Harrow, its educational advantages are 
quite as great ; and while the Kugbeian may not 
rub shoulders every day in the week with the son of 
my Lord This or Sir Somebody Else, yet he will 
find himself among youngsters in whose veins runs 
some of the best and sturdiest blood in England, and 
from whose ranks will be recruited the men wdio are 
to make the history of their countiy in the not far- 
off future. 




HARROW SCHOOL 

JHotto : 

"STET FORTUNA DOM US." 



Harrow School. 



Three leagues to north of London town 

Harrow up on the Hill ! 
There stands a school of high renown, 

Harrow up on the Hill I 
Low at her feet the rolling shire, 
Groves around her in green attire. 
And soaring above her a silent spire, 

Harrow up on the Hill! 

Men of honor in English realms, .^^ 

Harrow up on the Hill ! 
Have roamed as boys beneath her elms, 

Harrow up on the Hill ! 
And round the school which loves to claim 
The heirloom of their noble name 
They cast the halo of their fame, 

Harrow up on the Hill ! 

Others may boast of a Founder-King, 

Harrow up on the Hill ! 
We have a different birth to sing, 

Harrow up on the Hill I 
Glorious founders have there been, 
But never grander pair were seen 
Than Yeoman John and the Virgin Queen, 

Harrow up on the Hill ! 



222 School-Boy Life in jMkkrik England. 

And if Lliey ask what made lier great, 

Harrow up on the Hill ! 
"Was it her riches, pride, or fate ? 

Harrow up on the Hill 1 
Say that she rose because she would. 
Because her sons were wise and good, 
And bound in closest brotherhood, 

Harrow upon the Hill! — Harrow School Song. 




ARROW, or Harrow on-the- Hill, the 
^ Ilarewe-atte-IIull of the Sax- 
ons, so great is its antiquity, is a 
W^ quaint old town of Middlesex, finely 
planted on the summit of a high hill, 
miles N.N.W. of London. The drive 
Ither by road is most picturesque and enjoy- 
able, and the speedier Underground Railway 
lands the pilgrim within a half mile of the town — 
a long half mile, all up hill. On one hand the way 
is bordered by stately trees, through which gleam the 
gables of thatched cottages or red-tiled mansions ; on 
the left " green meadows stretch away toward London 
until the eye loses them in a hazy outline of oak and 
elm against a dull, mysterious-looking sky. For 
three hundred years one of the great public schools 
of England has held intellectual court on the sloping 
mount of this ancient Harrow, which had a local 



IIaukow School. 223 

i.iibitatioii and a name before the Norman Con- 
(|uest." 

From this hill at Harrow, ten miles from the 
marble arch at Hyde Park, the writer of Sahurhan 
Homes of London tells us, the view toward the east 
is bounded by the metropolis ; that to the south looks 
on the Crystal Palace and the Surrey Hills ; that on 
the south-east extends from Knockholt Beeches to 
Shooter's Hill and across the Thames to the Langdon 
Hills on the Essex side. '^ The west and south-west 
is especially beautiful from the church-yard, includ- 
ing Windsor Castle and a great part of the counties 
of Berkshire and Bucks. The north is least com- 
manding, but singularly rich, including Hampstead, 
Hendon, and Barnet." 

Harrow contains many fine old dwellings, but the 
chief interest centers around the ancient church and 
the grammar school. The former is at least seven 
centuries old, and in its shadow lie many generations 
of the inhabitants of the country-side, while quaint 
tombstones and odd inscriptions abound. Here rest 
the remains of John Lyon, founder of Harrow, and 
near by what is known as " Byron's tomb," from the 
poet's fondness therefor, is inclosed in an iron cage 
to preserve it from the vandal hand of the relic- 



22J: SciJOOL-BoY Life in Merrib England. 

hunter. Byron's daughter, Allegra, is buried in the 
church. " There is," the poet wrote to Murray, *' a 
spot in the cliurch-yard, near the footpath on the 
brow of the hill looking toward Windsor, where I 
used to sit for hours and hours when I was a boy ; 
this was my favorite spot, but as I wish to erect a 
tablet to her memory, her body had better be de- 
posited in the church." From the church spire, four 
hundred feet above the Thames, a noble view may 
be had, and the spire itself forms a conspicuous ob- 
ject in the landscape for miles around. On this 
account Charles II. called Harrow Church " the visi- 
ble church." 

Harrow, we are told, has a history full of anti- 
quarian interest and historic romance : 

Thomas a Becket held state here, and Wolsey was rector of 
the parish and lived in a moated house still to be found by 
the pedestrian. And, as in other suburban towns and vil- 
lages about London, the past and the present are pleasantly 
linked together by a hostelry that seems to belong to the 
coaching days, and suggests the time when the well-mounted 
highwayman was a picturesque though dangerous incident of 
the great roads that lead in and out of the metropolis. There 
is the swinging sign courting the breeze where probably the 
cross of the olden times reared aloft its Christian symbol. 
The inn has a quaint appearance, quietly retiring from the 
road, its window-panes fairly blinking with geniality. It 



Hakrow School. 225 

has a bar redolent of old ale and rum, and a coffee-room where 
joints of ham and beef, sticks of celery and Gloucestershire 
cheese, invite the sojourner to physical enjoyment. At the 
back of the house the old inn has an old-fashioned garden to 
match its sign, its bar, and its solid English fare. It grows 
stocks, and daisies, and marigolds, and roses, and ' ' lad's- 
love," or "old-man; " and beyond the trimmed lawn and the 
hedge-row that shuts in the flower borders from the grosser 
forms of vegetation there is a kitchen-garden with apple-trees 
and asparagus beds and potato patches; and farther away, 
outside the kitchen-garden, lies that typical English land- 
scape which had so many charms for Byron. Carriers' carts 
and family carriages and picnic brakes drive up to that invit- 
ing way-side inn of suburban London, and foaming tankards 
are quaffed there by rosy-faced people who look as if they had 
never seen the great city, though it lies under the mist yonder 
only a few miles away. 

Harrow School was founded in 1571 by "John 
Lyon, yeoman." The yeomanry of England are con- 
sidered as next to the gentry in the social scale. 
John Lyon w^onld seem to have been a wealthy land- 
owner. Among other bequests he instituted an arch- 
ery prize, consisting of a silver arrow, to be shot for 
annually on August 4; but though observed for over 
two centuries the custom has been abolished. 

John Lyon lived in the time when the great re- 
vival of letters was sweeping over England. Schools 

for the common people were few, and the worthy 
15 



22G SuHooL-BoY Life in Mekkie England. 

commoner tlioiiglit that he coiikl do no nobler act 
than to found a school where the children of his 
neitJjhbors could be educated. Among other posses- 
sions he owned a medicinal spring, to which persons 
traveled from long distances to drink of its waters. 
The owner suspended a leathern purse in a convenient 
place, and the visitors could drop therein a few small 
coins as a thank-olfering. Quite a large revenue re- 
sulted therefrom, and John Lyon set apart a cei'tain 
proportion of it to pay for the education of certain 
poor boys in Harrow. When he was assured that 
the effort w^as in the right direction he determined 
to found a permanent home for the school, so that 
the good work might go on long after he was 
gathered to his fathers, and the sons of the worthy 
poor of his native village be taught to the l'akI of 
tinje. So, as in the case of Ruo'bv, Harrow was 
originally intended for poor boys, yet through its 
growth in fame and w^ealth the very class whom the 
founder hoped to benefit has come to be almost to- 
tally excluded, and Harrow now ranks with Eton for 
aristocratic exclusiv^eness, though the school is nom- 
inally free for boys of the parish. 

In 1751 good Queen Bess granted a charter for 
the projected school, but it took forty years to 



IIakkow School. 227 

build the "well meete and convenient roomes '' for 
th<3 master, ushers, and scholars, and the school 
was opened in IGll. TJie old school-house is still 
standing — built in the extreme Elizabethan style, 
with pointed gables, and high, narrow, old-fashioned 
windows. The old school-room on the ground floor, 
where once all the boys met for recitation and school 
work, is still used two or three times a week for 
prayers. "The walls are wainscoted," says Mrs. 
Pennell, "and all over tlie wainscoting, and on the 
benches and desks, on the masters' tables, and even 
on the head-master's chair, school-boys for the last 
three hundred years have carved their names. Some 
of these names are large and sprawling, others small 
and neat, and they are so close together that there 
is no space for any new ones to be added. On one 
side, in very large letters, Byron's name is cut in 
tw^o different places, and near it is that of Peel, the 
great English statesman. The boys were really for- 
bidden to do this, and every name represents a 
severe punishment. But the masters are now very 
glad that the boys were disobedient, for many be- 
came famous in after life, and their school-boy 
carvings are pointed out with pride. Harrovians, as 
Harrow boys are called, now have their names 



228 School-Boy Life in Merkie England. 

carved for them on new panels provided for the pur- 
pose, and they think it quite an honor." 

The founder of Harrow ruled that in the lower 
forms the boys should study Latin grammar, Ter- 
ence, Cicero, and Ovid. In the Lower Fourth Form 
they were to study Caesar, Cicero, and Virgil, and 
the same, with the addition of Greek grammar, in 
the Upper Fourth, which should also be required to 
write Greek and Latin verses. In the Fifth Form 
Csesar, Cicero, Livy, and Demosthenes were to be 
studied, and Greek and Latin verses written. For 
two hundred and twenty-five years after the found- 
ing the only change made was that more verse- 
writing was introduced. In 1829 vulgar fractions, 
Euclid, geography, and modern history were first 
studied at this school. In 1837 the study of mathe- 
matics was made compulsory, and in 1857 modern 
languages were introduced. The founder of Harrow 
also prescribed that the recreation of the boys should 
consist of top-spinning, ball-tossing, archery, and 
nothing more. On October 22, 1838, the school 
was damaged by fire, but w^as quickly repaired, and 
in this way some needed improvements were come at, 
while the Public Schools act of 1868 greatljMnodified 
and regulated the internal economy of Harrow. 



Hareow School. 229 

From the foregoing it will be seen that the school 
is greatly changed since John Lyon's day. ^Not only 
have the buildings and the studies been modernized 
and enlarged, with shorter hours for study and more 
time for play, but the entire personnel of the school 
is changed. Nowadays the boys who go to Harrow 
are not poor free scholars, but well-to-do paying 
pupils — in fact, so much is paid that none but chil- 
dren of wealthy people can afford to enter. When 
John Lyon directed that the master could receive, 
besides the regular scholars, so many " foreigners " — • 
that is, boys from other parts of England — he little 
thought that the number of these outsiders would 
become so large, attracted by the high reputation of 
the school, that there would be over five hundred of 
them, while there would be only five or six " founda- 
tioners,", or free scholars. Yet so it is to-day. 

None but the free scholars board in the school 
proper. All others live with the different masters 
in the town, in some fifteen or twenty residences. 
Some of the larger " houses " accommodate forty 
boys ; some contain only a dozen, the average being 
twenty-five. Two or three boys room together in 
the dormitories, but all dine together ''in hall" 
with the master, only Sixth Form boys being allowed 



230 SciiooL-BoY Life in Mekkie England. 

to have breakfast and tea in solitary grandenr, 
waited on by their fags. In some of the smaller 
houses the boys eat with the master's family, and 
the arrangement is a very enjoyable one — for the 
boys. In the dormitories every boy has what is 
called a " Harrow bed " — a peculiar iron cot, which 
in the day-time is folded up out of sight and stored 
in a convenient closet. 

The one punishment for all offenses at Harrow is 
the writing of Greek and Latin lines. If a boy is 
late for " locking-up," he writes so many lines; if 
he does not answer to his name at "bill" he writes 
lines : for each and every offense against school or- 
der or discipline the penalty is " lines ; " and if the 
imposition be not finished by the next " bill," the 
punishment is doubled. Mrs. Pennell tells the story 
of a clever boy who on one occasion managed to 
escape writing half the quantity set, and this is how 
he did it : 

He was an untidy boy, and was often taken to task for 
his carelessness and disorder. One day his master, who had 
very dignified and impressive manners, and who always said 
"we" instead of ''you" when talking to the boys, found 
occasion to reprove him. "We do not look very clean," he 
said, with much severity. "We have not washed our hands 
this morning, have we ?" "I don't know about yours," was 



IIakkow (School. 231 

the impudent reply, "but I've waslied mine." "Ah!" yaid 
the master, "we are very imjiertinent to-day. We will have 
to write a hundred lines before next bill." When bill time 
came the master sent for the boy. "Have we written our 
lines ? " he asked. "I've written my fifty," the boy answered 
very promptly, handing in his paper, "but I don't know 
whether j^ouVe done your half." 

The masters chuckle over the story to tliis clay. 
The mention of being late for " locking up " recalls 
another story of outwitting a master : 

Once, on a very dark night, the head-master saw about 
half a dozen boys coming out of the village inn, where they 
had been positively forbidden to go. He could not see their 
faces, and as they all ran as soon as lie spoke to them, he only 
succeeded in seizing one of their numl)er. Pulling out his 
knife he cut a tail from this boy's coat and let him go, saying, 
"Now, sir, you may go home. I will know you in class to- 
morrow morning by this." The next morning came, and the 
head-master w^aited at his desk, ready to punish his victim 
with great severity, for the offense was counted a very serious 
one. But when the boys of his form came in, and passed, 
one by one, in front of the desk, each had but a single tail to 
his coat. They all had ruined their "tails" to save their 
friend. 

Every " house " at Harrow is a law unto itself so 
far as respects its internal government. Each has 
its own peculiar customs, its rivalries with the other 
houses at cricket, foot-ball, and swimming, while the 
rules as to fagging vary in severity in the various 



232 SciiooL-BoY Life in Mekeie England. 

houses. As a natural result membersliip in a cer- 
tain one is often eagerly sought for, and vacancies 
are bespoken years ahead. 

Shining indeed is the roll of Harrow's illustrious 
scholars. Among them stand out with peculiar 
brightness sucli names as Lord Palmerston ; Tlieo- 
dore Hook ; Sheridan ; Shendon ; Dr. Samuel Parr, 
who was usher from 1767-72 ; Percival ; Thomas Gis- 
borne, the essayist ; Sir WilHam Jones, the philoso- 
pher ; Charles Wordsworth, Bishop of St. Andrews ; 
Lord Byron, and Sir Robert Peel — the two last 
named having been classmates. In a note to the 
fourth canto of Childe Harold the poet says, 
regarding his leaving Harrow for Cambridge in 
ISOC) : 

"When I first went up to college it was a new 
and heavy-hearted scene for me. I so much disliked 
leaving Harrow that, though it was time (I being 
seventeen), it broke my rest for the last quarter with 
counting the days that remained. I always hated 
Harrow till the last year and a half, but tlien I 
liked it." 

His lines on the school, written in 1806, deserve 
to rank with Gray's relating to Eton, and are here 
reproduced in full : 



Harrow School. 233 

on a distant view of the village and scliool op 
h arrow-on-tu e-hill. 

" 0! mihi praeteritos referat si Jupiter annos."— Virgil. 

Ye scenes of my cliildliood, whose loved recollection 
Embitters tlie present, compared with the past; 

Where science first dawn'd on the powers of reflection. 
And friendships were form'd too romantic to last; 

Where fancy yet joys to trace the resemblance 
Of comrades, in friendship and mischief allied. 

How welcome to me your ne'er-fading remembrance, 
Which rests in the bosom, though hope is denied ! 

Again I revisit the hills where we sported, 

The streams where we swam, and the fields where we fought ; 
The school where, loud warn'd by the bell, we resorted, 

To pore o'er the precepts by pedagogues taught. 

Again I behold where for hours I have ponder'd, 
As reclining, at eve, on yon tombstone I lay ; 

Or round the steep brow of the churchyard I wander'd, 
To catch the last gleam of the sun's setting ray. 

I once more view the room, with spectators surrounded, 
Where, as Zanga, I trod on Alonzo o'erthrown ; 

While to swell my young pride such applauses resounded, 
I fancied that Mossop himself was outshone. 

Or, as Lear, I pour'd forth the deep imprecation, 
By my daughters of kingdom and reason deprived; 

Till fired by loud plaudits and self-adulation, 
I regarded myself as a Garrick revived. 

Te dreams of my boyhood, how mucli T regret you ! 

Unfaded your memory dwells in my breast ; 
Though sad and deserted, I ne'er can forget you : 

Your pleasures may still be in fancy possessed. 



23i SciiooL-BoY LiFH IN Mekiuk England. 

To Ida full oft may remembrance restore me, 
While fate shall the shades of the future unroll! 

Since darkness o'ersliadows the prospect before me, 
More dear is the beam of the past to my soul. 

But if through the course of the years which await me, 
Some new scene of pleasure should open to view, 

I will say, while with rapture the thouglit shall elale me, 
" 01 such were the days wliicli ni}^ infancy knew! " 

It was at Harrow Scliool tliat tlicre began one of 
those rare school-boy friendships that last a life-time, 
between Byron and Lord Clare. Ten years later 
they met in Italy, and of this encounter Byron says : 
" This meeting annihihited for a moment all the years 
between the present and the days at Harrow. . . . "VVe 
were but fiv^e minutes together, and on the public 
road, but I hardly recollect an hour of my existence 
which could be wei«:lied as^ainst them." In Hours 
of Idleness a poem is addressed to Lord Clare which 
recalls the boyish days of both at Harrow : 

" Friend of my youtli ! when young we roved. 
Like striplings mutually beloved, 

With friendship's purest glow: 
Tlie bliss which winged those rosy hours 
Was such as pleasure seldom showers 

On mortals here below." 

Love for the school and an intense esj)rit du corps 
distiniruish Harrovians even more than Etonians or 



Hakeow School. 235 

Kugbeians. They implicitly believe that Harrow and 
all it contains are far ahead of all other schools. Al- 
though the towers of Eton may be seen from the top 
of Harrow Hill nestling in the vale below, you will 
never hear a word at Harrow indicating the near 
neighborship of so great a rival. "Even Harrow 
masters pretend to know nothing of the manners and 
customs of the school near Windsor." This school 
feeling survives till gray hairs appear, and is proof 
alike against time and distance, and an old Harrovian 
will put his hand very deep in his pocket if he learns 
that the dear old school needs lielp of any kind. One 
of the school songs was written by a former scliool- 
boy in far away Allahabad in 1864, and the last stanza 
finely depicts this school feeling : 

" And when at last old age is ours, and manhood's strength has fled, 
And young ambition's tire is cold, and earthly hope lies dead, 
Once more amid our earthly haunts we feel our boyhood's thrill, 
And keep a niche within our hearts for Harrow-on-thc-Hill. 
For, searching England far and wide, no school can well be found 
That sends forth truer gentlemen, or stands on higher ground." 

And still another ditty svljs : 

" The Alps and the white Himalayas 

Are all very pleasant to see. 
But of riglit little, tight little, bright little hills, 

Our Harrow is highest, say we." 



23G School-Boy Life in Mereie England. 

All the school songs celebrate the praises of Har- 
row, of John Lyon, and of good Queen Elizabeth ; 
they sing of the charter as thougli it were the Great 
Charter of Enghmd, and are full of the trials and 
tribulations of new boys and of the noble prowess of 
the " old boys." Once a week there is singing in 
each house, on which occasions those boys and masters 
not similarly engaged come and listen, and very good 
singing it is ; for the boys are all well trained, and 
every boy must learn to sing. There was once a 
laughable and amusing custom, wherein the boys 
themselves tested the voices of all new-comers. Here 
is Mrs. Pennell's account of the ceremony : 

" The unfortunate new boy was made to stand on a 
table holding a lighted candle in each hand, and in 
this position was made to sing a song. If he failed 
he was made to drink a glass of soap and water. 
Something of this kind also occurred in the Christmas 
term. All the boys in a house would meet in a room, 
and the ' Footer Eleven,' clad in red dressing-gowns, 
would sit solemnly on a bench in front of a table. 
On this every boy stood in turn and sang his song, 
holding, like the new boy, a candle in each hand. On 
one side was an officer for the evening armed with a 
toasting-fork ; a second, armed with a racquet, was 



IIapvKow ISciiouL. 237 

stationed on the other side. When the singer stopped 
in his song or liesitated, tlie officers gave him a good 
thrashing with their weapons. The general result 
was, as a head-boy once wrote, ' a good deal of fun 
and some slight damage to the trowsers.' Nowadays 
in many of the houses the new boys are still forced 
to sing, but the candles and soap and water are left 
out of the ceremony. Besides this, at the supper at 
the end of every term, which is a jolly affair, with 
much speech-making and many toasts, every boy in 
tlie house is obliged to sing at least two or three 
verses of a song. The little fellows look forward to 
the evening with great fear and trembling, and prac- 
tice their songs for weeks beforehand." 

The modern side of Harrow School is most pleasing 
in its architecture, many of its buildings being by Gil- 
bert Scott. "The latest of all is the new Speech 
Room, a striking building in red brick, semicircular 
in form, below the church, near the high road. To 
the right of this road stand the college chapel, the 
Yaughan Library — a memorial of a revered head- 
master — the master's house, and other school build- 
ings. Passing between them one comes suddenly out 
upon a long terrace on the other brow of the hill, at 
one end of which an old dial counts the sunny hours. 



23S School-Boy Life in Mekkie England. 

and whence is another far and lovely view, tlie coun- 
terpart of that from the church. The master's garden 
stretches down the hill-side in careless, pleasant fash- 
ion, as though London and life were of no concern to 
the sweet idleness of the scholar; while olf at the 
west, Uxbridge way, is a tract of country said to be 
the most sparsely inhabited in the home counties." 

Although the head-master has chief control of the 
school, his is rather the power that is felt but not seen. 
During school-hours the boys are under the charge of 
the masters of their classes or forms; out of school, 
and when in their " houses," they are subject to the 
masters living there. But once or twice a week the 
whole school meets in Speech lioom, where the head- 
master issues such orders as are necessary ; at all 
other times the only scholars with whom he comes in 
innncdiate contact are those in his own house and 
form. 

The first sixteen boys in the highest or Sixth 
Form are termed monitors ; their authority is next 
to that of the masters, and in return for certain minor 
services they are permitted certain small privileges. 
When on duty they are not compelled to attend 
classes, and can use the school library at all times, 
though of course they must study their lessons, so as 



IIakkow School. 239 

to not full behind the form. So uuich for the gov- 
ernment of the school. 

The day's routine is as follows: School begins 
every morning at 7:30, and lasts until 9 ; from 9 to 
9:30 is breakfast-time, and then until 10 the boys are 
at liberty ; from 10 until 1 o'clock the boys are in 
their classes with only slight intermissions. Dinner 
is served at 1 o'clock. Tuesdays, Thursdays, and 
Saturdays are half-holidays. On Mondays, Wednes- 
days, and Fridays there is school from 3 to 4 and 
from 5 to 6. Tea comes at 6 ; supper at 8:30 ; 
prayers at 9:15, and at 10 o'clock the gas is turned 
off. During the evening, between tea-time and bed- 
time, the boys are supposed to prepare their work for 
the next day. On Sundays " chapel" is at 8:30, and 
a'>-ain at 11 and 6, while at 3 o'clock there is an hour's 
Scripture lesson, which must be prepared beforehand. 
On week-days " lock-up " in summer is at 8:30 ; in 
winter 6:30, and no boy may be out of his house after 
lock-up. 

On the regular half-holidays the boys are free from 
all restraint save that they must answer to their names 
at '' bill" at 1:45, 4, and 6 in the summer term, and 
at 1:45 and 4:15 in winter. This "bill" is a term 
peculiar to Harrow, and signifies a roll-call on holi- 



210 SciiooL-BoY Life in Mekeie Englan;d. 

days. Tlie observance deserves a paragraph to it- 
self. 

Precisely at the appointed hour the great school- 
1) .11 rings — and it can be heard for miles around. 
The boys come trooping into the school-yard from the 
swimming pool, from the cricket and foot-ball fields, 
from the racquet courts, from the cake-shops of the 
town, or from their own "houses." In a few mo- 
ments one of the masters, in academic gown and cap, 
takes his place on the wide stone steps, the monitor of 
the day at his side, and proceeds to call the roll of the 
entire school. Every boy must be either " present or 
iiccounted for," as they say in the army. All romp- 
ing stops, and silence reigns. In regular order the 
names are called, from the highest form to the lowest, 
and the boys in single file march past, and each one 
answers in turn, touching the brim of his hat, " Here, 
sir!" The names of the missing ones are taken 
down by the monitor, and before the day closes he 
has to find them and the reason for their absence, 
and report to the master. The penalty for missing 
" bill " is fifty lines of Greek or Latin. 

Harrow is divided into the Upper and the Lower 
School. The Sixth Form is the highest in the 
school ; it has three divisions, and usually numbers 



Harrow School. 241 

about seventy-five boys. Next in rank is tlie Fifth 
Form, wliicli also has tliree divisions. Next in order 
come the Upper and tiie Modern Eemoves, all of the 
foregoing constituting the Upper School, the boys in 
which wear " tails," or tailed coats. In the Lower 
School, where the boys wear jackets, the highest 
classes are the two Lower Removes ; these are fol- 
lowed by three " Shells ; " * and lowest of all is the 
Fourth Form, which has also three divisions. All 
these divisions are rather hard to remember, so they 
are tabulated below : 

Sixth Form 

Three Divisions. 
Fifth Form 

Three Divisions. 
Upper Remove 
Modern Remove J 

Two Lower Removes ] 

Three Shells ^ 

^ J- Lower School. 

Fourth Form i 

Three Divisions. J 

When not studying in school the boys are allowed 
great freedom, and are virtually their own masters. 

* This term is a corruption of the French word echelle, "ladder." 
Formerly there were no " removes," and the "shells" were the steps 
leading from the Lower to the Upper School. 
16 



Upper School. 



242 ScnooL-BoY Life in Mekrie England. 

Provided tliej are present at •' bill " and " lock-up " 
the intervening time for play may be spent at pleas- 
ure. True enough, there are certain bounds set to 
their excursions abroad, and there are likewise certain 
things they must not do ; but there are no beadles or 
proctors to spy upon them, and the result is a healthy 
independence and self-reliance. Fagging is the only 
bugbear, for at Harrow the rules and regulations 
which define the time-honored custom are very 
minute. 

In some of the smaller houses there is not and 
never has been any fagghig, and there is an un- 
written law of the school wdiich says that a boy who 
has never been a fag cannot have a fag! So when 
a boy, in course of time, moves from a fagless house 
into a larger one on entering the Sixth Form " he 
must first serve his apprenticeship before he acquires 
the right to give orders to a fag." For a period of 
time varying from a day to a fortniglit the big fellow 
waits on the other big fellows of the Sixth Form, who 
plague him with long errands and the most trifling 
duties. 

The Sixth Form is the only one in the school per- 
mitted to have fags. " Their baths and their fires, 
their meals and their messages, are attended to by 



Hakrow School. 243 

the younger bo.ys." The Fiftli Form and its three 
divisions form an intermediate class — they are not 
old enough to be allowed the luxury of fags, and yet 
they themselves are deemed too big to serve as such. 
Dut all the other boys, from the two Upper Eemoves 
downward, including the whole of the Lower School, 
have to take turns at fagging. '* Each one is on 
duty for a certain length of time, as 'day-fag,' 
' night-fag,' or ' find-%.' The day-fag has to stay 
in his house all day long in case he may be wanted. 
He has to keep the fires of the Sixth Form boys 
burning, and he must fill their baths after foot- 
ball, and empty their basins in the evening. The 
find-fag is the marketer; that is, he goes to the 
tuck-shop for sausages, or eggs, or whatever deli- 
cacy it may please his master to order. The night- 
fags run on messages during the evening and fetch 
hot water for the Sixth Form. As the night work 
is thought to be easiest it is usually given to the 
boys in the Upper Eemoves. In some houses the 
fagging duties are lighter than in others, but whether 
they be light or heavy the boys never rebel against 
tliem." 

Play-time at Harrow is given over to cricket, foot- 
ball, and racquets— the Harrovians excelling all com- 



24-i SciiooL-BoY Life in Mekrie England. 

petitors in the latter. Sings Byron, referring to tliese 

liours of relaxation : 

" Yet, when confinement's lingering hour was done, 

Our sports, our studies, and our souls were one ! 

Together we nnpelled the flying ball, 

Together joined in cricket's manly toil, 

Or shared the produce of the river's spoil ; 

Or, plunging from the green declining shore, 

Our pliant limbs the buoyant water bore; 

In every element unchanged, the same — 

All, all that broihers should be but the name! " 

In tlie calendar of British sport two events attract 
general attention, both being connected with institu- 
tions of learning. The first is the Oxford and Cam- 
bridge boat-race over the Thames course ; the second 
is the Eton and Harrow cricket-match at Lord's. The 
lirst, in early spring, may be said to open the London 
season ; the last, in the late summer, closes the round 
of fashionable gayety, and Harrovians and Etonians 
emulate in cricket the athletic aquatic prowess of 
Cantabrians and Oxonians on the bosom of Father 
Thame. Many instances might be cited to prove 
that some of the most distinguished public men in the 
last century of English history were enthusiastic 
athletes in their school-boy and college days. 

The Eton and Harrow match at Lord's is worth 
seeing and describing. Lord's ground is situated in 



Harrow School. 245 

the fashionable suburban district known as St. Jolm's 
Wood, adjoining the Clergy Orphan School, and the 
elite and those who love sport for sport's sake attend 
in crowds. Drags and coaches from Belgravia and 
Mayfair belt the grounds in solid tiers ; private car- 
riages and hansoms are numbered by hundreds ; while 
the comfoi-table middle classes stand on the ground 
against the ropes. If the day be fine the roofs of the 
drags and coaches afford dazzling visions of female 
loveliness and aristocratic grace, and during the in- 
terval for lunch sumptuous repasts are spread by 
liveried servants. Royalty is generally present on 
one or both days. The niceties of the game are 
watched with scrupulous attention, and enthusiastic 
applause greets every bit of fine play. 

The sight is interesting and picturesque; the ladies are in 
their lightest and prettiest costumes ; the gentlemen have gen- 
erally discarded black cloth; the liveries of the servants are 
bright with many buttons; the silver mountings of coach and 
carriage flash in the sun ; the two blues of the rival schools 
flutter agdnst the lighter blue of the sky; inside the barricade 
of carriages thousands of persons are promenading; the grand 
stands are alive with people coming and going; and then pres- 
ently the ground is once more cleared for action, every body 
gets back to his or her place of observation, and your eye rests 
upon a green expanse, like an enormous billiard-table, dotted 
with white-flanneled cricketers. Outside Lord's there is a 



Sic School- Boy Life in Mj^kkie England. 

continual stream of traffic to and fro, coming and going from 
Loudon ; it is regulated by a double line of policemen, who 
stretch away as far as Baker Street; and in many of the villas 
round about the grounds private luncheons are spread for 
friends and visitors. 

Two or three peculiarities of dress distinguish Har- 
rovians. The boys in the Lower School all wear tlic 
short, round jacket ; but when they rise into the Up- 
per School they wear tailed coats, familiarly spoken 
of as "tails." The entire school wear straw hats, 
winter and summer, known as "straws." These 
" straws " have a band of either blue or black ribbon 
around the crown, and a slender round elastic, such 
as girls and women use, depends from the inner edge 
of the brim and is caught in the hair at tlie back of 
the head ! No one knows w^hy the chin elastic should 
be so worn ; but the boys " have always done so," 
and that is enough sanction for the fashion in their 
eyes. On Sundays "straws" are laid aside for tall 
silk " chimney-pot " hats. Oddly enough, the " tails" 
of the older boys are cut like a modern dress-coat, 
or claw-hammer, and the boys wearing any color of 
vests and trowsers they choose the hybrid effect can 
be better imagined than described. 

The cricket Eleven, the deities of the school, wor- 
shiped by the younger boys and honestly admired 



Harrow School. 24*1 

by tlie Upper School, are privileged to wear black- 
and-white "straws," white flannel trowsers, white 
vests, and brass buttons on their coats. Being elected 
to the eleven is in school slang called ''getting your 
flannels." No one but the members of the Eleven 
may wear white vests ; and when a boy has, on ac- 
count of his superior prowess in the cricket-fleld, 
been chosen as one of the Eleven, he is cheered by 
the entire school on assembling for the next ensu- 
ing "bill." Another peculiarity is the habit Har- 
rovians have of clipping the names of things or 
observances connected with the school, and aflixing 
the syllable er to the contraction. Thus, foot-ball 
becomes Footer; the duck-pond where they swim 
{q Duclcer ; the Speech-Room i^Speecher; the Sick- 
Room Sicker^ etc. A Harrow boy's conversation is 
so interlarded with these strange words as to be almost 
unintelligible to the uninitiated. 

There is an unwritten law that all fights must 
come off in presence of the entire school. A small 
grassy space under the school-house wall is shown as 
the "milling-ground." In presence of so democratic 
an audience no fight can take place except for good 
cause, and any thing like gouging, unfair hitting, or 
cowardly tactics is impossible. 



248 School-Boy Life in Merrie England. 

Cricket is the fovorite game at Harrow, and the 
cricket-iield is one of the iinest anywhere. Every 
holiday sees the fields dotted with players, and school- 
house matches are frequent. The last match of the 
year is oddly named the " Goose Match." It comes 
off in the last week of Ootober, and takes its name 
from the fact that in the evening both elevens have a 
grand dinner, at w^hich goose is the chief dish. 

Foot-ball comes after cricket in popularity. Thrice 
in a fortnight there is a " School Compul.," that is, 
a compulsory " footer," when the whole school must 
play save those excused by the doctor. In the match- 
es between the various "houses" the masters take 
part, and are as zealous for the honor of their side as 
the boys. Sometimes the masters challenge the 
"houses," one at a time, and beat them, too. The 
Harrow game is not so rough as that at Rugby. 
Founder's Day, October 9, sees the great "footer" 
match of the year, in honor of " Yeoman John Lyon, 
of Preston." On this occasion there is a reunion of 
old and new Harrovians, a sermon is preached by the 
head-master, there is a big school dinner, and in the 
early evening the boys troop into "Speedier" and 
sing school songs as only Harrow boys can sing. 



CHARTERHOUSE SCHOOL. 

Plotto : 
FLOREAT /ETERNUM CARTHUSIANA DOMUS.' 



Charterhouse School. 




LTHOUGH we were scliool fel- 
lows, my acquaintance with young 
Newconie at the seat of learning 
where we first met was very brief 
and casual. He had the advantage 
of being six years the junior of liis present 
biographer, and such a difference of age be- 
tween lads at a public school puts intimacy 
out of the question, a junior ensign being no 
more familiar with the commander-in-chief at the 
Horse-Guards, or a barrister on his first circuit with 
'my lord -chief-justice on the bench, than the newly- 
breeched inflmt in the Petties with the senior boy in 
a tailed coat. As we ' knew each other at home,' as 
our school phrase was, and our families were some- 
what acquainted, Newcome's maternal uncle, when he 
brought the child after the Christmas vacation .to the 
Grey Friars' School, recommended him in a neat 



252 School-Boy Life in Mekrie England. 

complimentary speech to my siiperiiiteiideiice and 
protection. I promised to do wliat I could for the 
boy, and he proceeded to take leave of his little 
nephew in my presence in terms equally eloquent, 
pulling out a long and very slender green purse, from 
which he extracted the sum of two-and-sixpence, 
which he presented to the child, who received tlie 
money with rather a queer twinkle in his blue eyes. 

" After that day's school I met my little protege 
in the neighborhood of a pastry-cook's regaling him- 
self with raspberry tarts. ' You must not spend all 
that money, sir, which your uncle gave,' said I (hav- 
ing pei'haps even at that early age a slightly satirical 
turn), * in tarts and ginger-beer. ' 

" The urchin rubbed the raspberry jam off liis 
mouth, and said, ' It don't matter, sir, for I've got 
lots more.' 

" ' How much ? ' says the Grand Inquisitor, for the 
formula of interrogation used to be, when a new boy 
came to the school. What's your name ? Who's your 
father ? and. How much money have you got ? 

" The little fellow pulled such a handful of sove- 
reigns out of his pocket as might have made the tall- 
est scholar feel a pang of envy. ' Uncle Hobson,' 
says lie, ' gave me two ; Aunt Ilobson gave me one — 



Charteehouse School. 253 

no, Aunt Hobson gave me thirty sliillings. Uncle 
lN"ewcome gave me three pound ; and Aunt Ann 
gave me one-pound-tive ; and Aunt Iloneyman sent 
me ten shillings in a letter ; and Ethel wanted to give 
me a pound, only I wouldn't have it, you know, be- 
cause Ethel's younger than me, and I have plenty.' 

" ' And who is Ethel ? ' asks the senior boy, smiling 
at the artless youth's confessions. 

" ' Ethel is my cousin,' replies little ]S"ewcome — 
'Aunt Ann's daughter. There's Ethel, and Alice, 
and Aunt Ann wanted the baby to be called Boadicea, 
only uncle wouldn't ; and there's Barnes, and Egbert, 
and little Alfred, only he don't count — he's quite a 
baby, you know. Egbert and me was at school at 
Timpany's. He's going to Eton next half. He's 
older than me, but I can lick him.' 

" ' And how old is Egbert ? ' asked the smiling 
senior. 

'' ' Egbert's ten, and I'm nine, and Ethel's seven,' 
replies the little chubby-faced hero, digging his hands 
deep into his trowsers' pockets, and jingling all the 
sovereigns there. I advised him to let me be his 
banker, and, keeping one out of his many gold pieces, 
he handed over the others, on which he drew with 
great liberality till his whole stock was expended. 



254 SciiooL-BoY Life in Merrie England. 

The scliool-lionrs of the upper and under boys were 
different, the little fellows coming out of their hall 
lialf an hour before the Fifth and Sixth Forms ; and 
many a time I used to find my little blue-jacket in 
waiting, with his honest, square face and white hair 
and bright blue eyes, and I knew that he was come to 
draw on his bank. Erelong one of the pretty blue 
eyes was shut up, and a fine black one substituted in 
its place. He had been engaged, it appeared, in a 
pugilistic encounter with a giant of his own Form, 
whom he had worsted in the combat. ' Didn't I 
pitch into him, that's all,' says he, in the elation of 
victory, and when I asked whence the quarrel arose 
lie stoutly informed me that Wolf Minor, his oppo- 
nent, had been bullying a little boy, and that he, the 
gigantic Kewcome, wouldn't stand it ! " 

The foregoing extract, so redolent of the atmos- 
phere of an English public school half a century 
ago, is from one of the chapters of The Newcomes, a 
work thought by many to be Thackeray's master- 
piece, in which the liero is educated and afterward 
dies in the old Charterhouse in London. 

The metropolis of Great Britain boasts of five of 
the ten famous foundations known in England as 



Chakteeiiouse School. 255 

Public Schools — Cliarterlionse School, Christ Hos- 
pital, St. Paul's School, Merchant Taylors' School, 
and Westminster School. The first enjoys the dis- 
tinction of being the oldest group of buildings in 
London, save the historic Tower ; the second is better 
known as " the Blue-coat School," while tlie last 
nestles under the shadow of the great ^Norman abbey 
on the banks of Thame. 

Not far from Christ Hospital — in fact, l)nt for 
the city's ceaseless roar and rattle, the boys at play 
might answer each others wild halloos — stands tlie 
Charterhouse, the historic Aid ersgate Street, anciently 
Alderman's Gate Street, forming the connecting ar- 
tery between the two schools. 

Like the twin titles of the Newgate Street School, 
the name Charterhouse needs some explanation. The 
word is a coi'ruption of La Chartreuse, the place near 
Grenoble, in France, where St. Bruno, in 1086, 
founded a monastic order famed for its piety and 
austere rule. In 1170 the order received the ap- 
proval of the reigning pope and spread rapidly over 
Europe, dating from 1180 in England, whore the 
monasteries were called " Chartreuse Houses," which 
in time became in common speech corrupted into 
"Charterhouses" — a not surprising transmutation 



256 School-Boy Life in Mekrie England. 

when we remember how much the English of the 
twelfth century were exercised about " the great 
charter." 

The rules of the Carthusian order, says Basil 
Cliampney, " were founded on those of the Benedic- 
tines, and were exceedingly strict. Solitude and si- 
lence were enjoined. The brothers dined in common 
on rare occasions only, and usually met together in 
their chapel solely. So strict w^as the rule that they 
were excluded by elaborate devices from communica- 
tion even with the lay brethren who attended to their 
wants. The monks wore hair shirts ; generally ab- 
stained from meat; on Fridays took nothing but 
bread and water; supported themselves by manual 
labor; never left the monastery, and allowed no 
women within the precincts." Such was the austerity 
of the life practiced in the cloisters, where later the 
shouts of careless boyhood awoke merry echoes. 

The history of the Charterhouse naturally falls 
into three periods. 

The first epoch starts at the beginning of the his- 
tory of the group of buildings known to this day 
by the collective name " Cliarterhouse." " When, in 
the middle of the fourteenth century, a plague broke 
out in England, a Flemish nobleman named Sir 



Charterhouse School. 257 

"Walter de Manny,* greatly distressed by the mise- 
ries consequent thereon, formed a design of alleviat- 
ing as far as might be the suffering it caused among 
the poor. With the view of rendering such aid as 
lay in his power in this terrible emergency, he pur- 
chased some thirteen acres of land known as the 
Spittle (Hospital) Croft. The land thus acquired 
joined a plot of three acres known anciently as No- 
Man's Land, -which had been purchased for a burial 
ground by the then Bishop of London, who had also 
erected thereon a chapel in which might be said 
masses for the dead. De Manny had originally in- 
tended his thirteen acres for an extension of the 
burial ground, and iifty thousand bodies are said to 
have been interred there. Bat a few years later he 
altered his plans, and in 1371 planned and built the 
buildings for a Carthusian monastery. The extent 

'^ This gentleman escorted Pliilippa of Haiiiault to England for 
her marriage with King Edward Third. His residence at tlie En- 
glish court was prolonged some years, and in the fifth year of his 
majesty's reign he received the honor of knighthood, Tims attached 
to the court of England, he became a faithful adherent of Edward. 
After having done valiant service in tlie French wars, during which 
he was taken prisoner, he was, on his return to England, made a 
peer of the realm, and a knight of the Order of the Garter. He 
was a man of deep religious feeling, and devoted much of his life 
to the furtherance of good works. — William Haig Brown. 

17 



25S SonooL-BoY Life in Merrie England. 

of De Manny's buildings is clearly marked by a plan 
preserved to this day in the master's lodge. Save 
some outlying buildings, a gateway, a wind-mill, and 
the ' flesh-kitchen,' known also as ' Egypt,' — a name 
wliich indicates the austerity of the Cartliusian's life 
— they formed a complete and extensive quadrangu- 
lar inclosure, the whole being surrounded by a cov- 
ered cloister," running round the four sides of what 
is so well known to old Carthusians as " Upper 
Green." Here were the twenty-four cottages, or 
cells, in which the same number of monks lived a si- 
lent, solitary life, almost after the manner of hermits. 
On the south side w^ere the Chapel and Chapter-house. 
The latter has entirely disappeared. Of the twenty- 
four cells nothing remains but a couple of door-ways ; 
the original chapel is still represented by a part of 
the south wall and a few^ buttresses. The little clois- 
ter, where the guests were lodged, and a small quad- 
rangle, in which dwelt the servants of the monks, 
still remain. They were built about 1500, and the 
whole of the main walls are well preserved. 

The south side, says Mr. Champney, "included 
the present south aisle of the chapel, and the western 
wall of the eastern cells is now the eastern boundary 
of the premises. In the old stone wall was long dis- 



Charterhouse School. 259 

cernible the opening through which food was passed 
to the occupant of one of the cells. The number of 
the cells, twenty-four in all, is a larger unniber than 
is usually found in a Carthusian monastery, the regu- 
lation number being thirteen. The original main 
gateway stood in the position of that which now 
stands fronting on Charterhouse Square. The an- 
cient plan before alluded to shows a very elaborate 
system of water supply. The central feature of the 
*quad' is a sort of conduit house, now called the 
' wash-house,' octagonal in form, some iifty feet in 
diameter, and a hundred in height. From it there 
issue four streams toward the cardinal points, which 
affain communicate with water - courses runnino; 
behind the cells, and probably used for sanitary pur- 
poses." 

Space will not permit a detailed description of the 
many curious and noble chambers in old Charter- 
house. But we may find room for a brief sketch of 
the beauties of the most remarkable of these, known 
as the governor's room, so called " because for many 
years after the foundation of the hospital the assem- 
blies of the governors were held there. The ceiling 
is highly ornamented with geometric figures, heraldic 
lions and shields emblazoned with coats of arms of 



260 School-Boy Life in Mekkie England. 

several members of the Howard family. These 
were for many years covered with whitewash, but 
their colors have recently been restored, and the 
ceiling ranks among the best specimens of that kind 
of work. In the border the well-known motto of 
the Duke, Sola virtus invicta, in gold letters, occurs 
several times. On the walls are some ancient tapes- 
tries, one of which is said to represent the siege of 
Calais. Originally tliey served as an arras, but they 
fell into partial decay ; the main parts, however, are 
still preserved, and these have been carefully put to- 
gether, and now serve as wall decorations in large 
panels." 

The nucleus of this extensive establishment was, as 
we have seen, the plot called "No-Man's Land." 
This is now the area of Charterhouse S(piare, and the 
governors keep their rights intact by receiving from 
each occupier of a house opening into the square a 
nominal rent for the privilege of leaving his house 
by the front door ! In the days of King James First 
several noble mansions, notably those of Lord Rut- 
land, Lord Dorset, and Lord Tankerville, occupied 
adjoining sites. 

The second stage in the history of the place began 
in 1537, when, in common with many another of the 



Chaetekhouse School. 261 

English monasteries, Cliarterliouse was " visited " by 
Henry Eighth, and its downfall set. The monks who 
remained faithful to their religion were treated with 
severity exceptional even under the hands of " that 
spot of blood and grease on the page of history " — 
Bluff King Hal. Houghton the Prior was hanged 
at his own gateway for denying and ridiculing the 
king's supremacy in matters spiritual ; his monks 
met either the same fate or a worse one in being sent 
to a prisoner's lingering death in a dungeon's depths. 
Having confiscated the property of the brotherhood 
the king about eight years afterward made a grant of 
it to Sir Edward, later Lord North. 

He at once, says a recent writer, "proceeded to 
turn it into a residence for himself. The Gi*eat 
Cloister, with its twenty-four little stone cottages, 
was of no use to help him, except, perhaps, to furnish 
building materials. But the Little Cloister, with its 
stately Guesten Hall, and spacious suite of rooms on 
the first and second floors, was a mansion ready made. 
This part of the building he seems scarcely to have 
touched, and fortunately the little quadrangle, where 
the servants of the monks lived, was also spared, as 
being equally convenient for those of the nobleman. 
In 1565 Eoger, Lord North, son of Edward, sold the 



262 School-Boy Life in Merrie England. 

property for £2,500 to the Duke of Norfolk, wlio 
spent no little time and money in beautifying, and 
perhaps slightly adding to, the house which he had 
bought. It is to him we probably owe the great 
staircase, the Music Gallery^ and side gallery in the 
Great Hall, the Governor's Koom, built on the north 
side of the hall — probably upon the site of the prior's 
lodgings — and the brick cloister, dear to the hearts of 
Carthusian foot-ball players, which occupies the site 
of the western side of the Great Cloister of the mon- 
astery. "We must not omit to mention that during 
Lord North's tenure of the property it passed for a 
short time, either by sale or gift, into the possession 
of the Duke of Northumberland. Lord North, how- 
ever, soon got it back again, for not many months 
passed before the Duke of Northumberland was be- 
lieaded (1553), when the property was forfeited to 
the Crown, and immediately re-granted to Lord 
North. Dukes, indeed, w^ere unlucky owners of the 
Charterhouse, for another duke — namely, the Duke 
of Norfolk, already mentioned — possessed it for a 
few years, and he also perished on the scaffold. 
Thus in less than twenty years it was the property 
of two dukes, both of whom were beheaded for In'gh 
treason." 



Charterhouse School. 263 

The foregoing brief sketch covers the period be- 
tween 1537, wlien the monastery was dissolved, and 
1611, when Thomas Sutton purchased the premises, 
still containing thirteen acres of land, and the build- 
ings thereon, and proceeded to convert them to the 
uses of a beneficent charitj^, the purchaser pajang 
£13,000 for the property, and,furtlier,devoted nearly 
the whole of a large fortune to the establishment of 
a home or " hospital " for aged men and a school for 
boys. 

King James First issued letters-patent decreeing 
tliat it should be called '' the Hospital of King James 
founded in the Charterliouse." On tlie foundation 
were eiglity poor brothers and forty-four poor schol- 
ars. But these limits have been exceeded for many 
years, as the Charterhouse grew more and more 
wealthy, until now there are five hundred boys, of 
whom sixty are "scholars." But owing to a recent 
decrease of income from agricultural lands it has 
been found necessary to reduce the number of pen- 
sioners temporarily, and there are now only fifty-five 
housed in tlie old buildings. 

According to Sutton's plan, education was to be 
given free of cost, and gratuitous support to the 
"eighty ancient gentlemen, captains, and others. 



26tl: SciiooL-BoY Life in Merkie England. 

brought to distress by shipwreck, wounds, and other 
reverses of fortune," and tlie establishment w^as lib- 
erally endowed by the worthy burgess. He died in 
1611, just after completing his plans. The property 
w^liich passed into the hands of Sutton consisted of 
the before-mentioned thirteen acres of land, on which 
stood the chapel of the monastery, the banqueting 
hall of the Duke of [N'orfolk, and his reception rooms, 
a large part of the structure which is now the Mas- 
ter's Lodge, Washhouse Court, and all that remained 
of the monastic buildings. 

Very little can be said of the ancestry of Thomas 
Sutton. He was born at Knarth, in Lincolnshire, in 
1532, His father, though not a person of high dis- 
tinction, was of some standing in the city of Lincoln, 
where he filled the post of steward to the courts. 
In early youth the father sent his son to Eton, and 
from thence lie is said to have passed to St. John's 
College, Cambridge, where he was matriculated Nov. 
27, 1551. He became a student of Lincoln's Inn, but 
the study of law was soon exchanged for the diver- 
sion of foreign travel through Holland, France, Italy, 
and Spain. By his father's will Sutton was provided 
with such a competence that he was able to dispose 
of his time according to his own inclination, and 



Charterhouse School. 2t35 

consequently he attached himself to the retinue of 
Tliomas, Duke of Norfolk. After some time spent 
in this service he became secretary to the Earl of 
Warwick, and was by this nobleman granted a retir- 
ing pension in 1569. 

The earl being Master-general of Ordnance, he 
appointed Sutton to be his subordinate at Berwick, 
and out of this important post grew some active 
service against the rebels in the north of Britain 
from 1569-1573. On the restoration of order 
Sutton turned his attention to mercantile affairs. 
" During his service he had been impressed by the 
undeveloped mineral wealth which lay buried in the 
coal-mines of Northumberland, and he secured a 
lease of some land for a period of seventy-nine 
years. He did not return to London until 15S0, 
and then he brought with him two horseloads of 
money, and was said to be worth £50,000. It was 
said that he was richer in ready money than Queen 
Elizabeth herself." 

When Thomas Sutton passed away from this world 
he left behind him a princely fortune, and he tried 
in bequeathing it, as he had in using it in his life- 
time, to promote, as far as in him lay, the greatest 
good to the greatest number, regarding himself only 



2GG SciiooL-BoY Life in Mkkrie England. 

as the steward and dispenser of the wealth tliat had 
been intrusted to his care.* 

Fortunately Sutton's trustees and the governors 
upon whom fell the duty of settling up the twin 
charities did not find it necessary to interfere to any 
large extent with the interestins: buildinojs on the site. 
Alterations had to be made in the chapel, wdiich was 
now called upon tc hold a far larger number tlian 
the twenty-four monks for whom it was originally 
built, and as a consequence w^e have now a building 
in the Jacobean style of architecture, dating from 
1612, of which the ante-chapel, the south wall, two 
windows and a door-way, w^ith part of the east wall, 
alone date from the days of the monks. But the rest 
of the buildings remained much as they were, and, 
thanks to the conserving hand of a long series of 
governors and masters, they have come dowm little 
changed to our owm day. 

At the northern end of the cloister, near where 
the Duke of Norfolk ha ' built his tennis court, Sut- 
ton put up the school-houses for the lodgment of tlie 
poor children for wdiose education he provided. 

* For the facts in the foregoing biograpliy of Thomas Sutton the 
writer is indebted to the admirable historj- of tlie Charterhouse by 
Wilham Haiof Brown, long head-master of tlie school. 



Charterhouse School. 267 

These were standing until the transfer of the school 
to Godahning, when they were destroyed to make 
way for a new buikling for Merchant Taylors' 
School. At the same time a large portion of the 
characteristic old cloister disappeared. Tlie school 
buildings were modest, sober, and dignified in char- 
acter, and a fair example of the more utilitarian brick 
architecture of the period. 

The Public Schools Act of 1868, to which refer- 
ence has been made, affected the old Charterhouse 
not a little. In September, 1872, the old site was 
abandoned, so far as the school for boys was con- 
cerned, and the latter was transferred to new build- 
ings at Godalming in Surrey. The old buildings 
were transferred, after some vandal reconstruction, to 
the Merchant Taylors' School, as above alluded to, 
and were opened by the Prince of Wales on April 6, 
1875, so that boys still learn in Sutton's hospital and 
gambol in the monks' great cloister. At the same 
time the buildings for the "poor brethren" were 
modified and modernized, and both the old and young 
beneficiaries profited by the change. 

There are, of course, many ancient and honored 
observances connected with so venerable an institu- 
tion. What is known as " Founder's Day " has been 



268 School-Boy Life in Merrie England. 

maiiitained without a single omission for over two 
lumdred years. "Every year, on the anniversary of 
the death of Thomas Sutton, they who have partaken 
of his bounty liave together blessed his memory. 
Very early after the foundation of Charterhouse those 
who had been educated within its walls chose this 
day for their meeting, and tlie dinner of Old Car- 
thusians on the 12th of December is probably the 
most ancient of similar celebrations anywhere." 

As elsewhere noted, Thackeray was a pupil at 
Charterhouse, and in The Newcomes he has left us 
some pleasing pen-pictures and glimpses of its life 
and doings. Here is his account of Founder's Day : 

" Mention has been made once or twice in the 
course of this history of the Grey Friars' School — 
where the colonel and Clive and I had been brought 
up — an ancient foundation of tlie time of James 
First, still subsisting in the heart of London city. 
The death-day of the founder of the place is still 
kept solemnly by Cistercians. In their chapel, where 
assemble the boys of the school, and the fourscore 
old men of the Hospital, the founder's tomb stands — 
a huge edifice emblazoned with heraldic decorations 
and clumsy carved allegories. There is an old hall, 
a beautiful specimen of the architecture of James's 



Charterhouse School. 209 

time ; an old liall ? — many old halls ; old staircases, 
old passages, old cliambers decorated with old portraits, 
walking in the midst of which we walk as it were in 
the early seventeenth century. To others than Cister- 
cians Grey Friars is a dreary place, possibly. jN'ever- 
theless, the pupils educated there love to revisit it ; 
and the oldest of us grow young again for an hour 
or two as we come back into those scenes of child- 
hood. The custom of the school is that on the 
twelfth of December, the Founder's Day, the head 
gown-boy shall recite a Latin oration in praise Fun- 
datoris nostri and upon other subjects ; and a goodly 
company of old Cistercians is generally brought to- 
gether to attend this oration : after which we go to 
chapel and hear a sermon ; after which we adjourn 
to a great dinner where old condisciples meet, old 
toasts are given, and speeches are made. Before 
marching from the oration hall to chapel the stewards 
of the day's dinner, according to old-fashioned rite, 
have wands put into their hands, walk to church at 
the head of the procession, and sit there in places of 
honor. The boys are already in their seats with 
sunny, fresh faces and shiny white collars ; the old 
black-gowned pensioners are on their benches ; the 
chapel is lighted, and founder's tomb, with its gro- 



270 SciiooL-BoY Life in Mekeie England. 

tesqne carvings, uioiisters, heraldries, darkles and 
shines with the most wonderful shadows and li<j;'lits. 
There he lies, Fundator nostei\ in his ruff and gown, 
awaiting the great examination day. We oldsters, be 
we never so old, become boys again as we look at 
that familiar old tomb, and think how the seats are 
altered since we were here, and how the doctor — 
not the present doctor, the doctor of our time — used 
to sit yonder, and his awful eye used to frighten us 
shuddering boys on whom it lighted ; and how the 
boy next us would kick our shins during service 
time, and how the monitor would cane us afterward 
because our shins were kicked. Yonder sit forty 
cherry-cheeked bo3^s thinking about home and holi- 
days to-morrow. Yonder sit some tlireescore old 
gentlemen pensioners of the hospital, listening to the 
prayers and the psalms. You hear them coughing 
feebly in the twilight — the old reverend black-gowns. 
Is Codd Ajax alive? you wonder. The Cistercian 
boys called these old gentlemen Codds — I know not 
wherefore — but is Codd Ajax alive, I wonder; or 
Codd Soldier or kind old Codd Gentleman ; or has 
tlie grave closed over them? A plenty of candles 
lighted up this chapel, and this scene of age and 
youth and early memories and pompous death. How 



ClIAKTEEHOUSE ScHOOL. 271 

solemn tlie well-remembered prayers are, here uttered 
again in tlie place where in childhood we nsed to 
hear them ! How beautiful and decorous the rite; 
how noble the ancient words of the supplications 
which the priest utters and to which generations of 
fresh children and troops of bygone seniors have cried 
Amen nnder those arches ! " 

Still another occasion, says Mr. William Haig 
Brown, author of Charterhouse Past and Present^ 
which draws together the members of the school is 
the annual cricket match between old and young 
Carthusians. It was first observed in 1833, so can 
already boast of a respectable antiquity. Then there 
is the Concert, which is given annually, and which 
was instituted in 1846 by Mr. John Hullah, the dis- 
tinguished composer, who was then, and for many 
succeeding years, teacher of singing to the school. 
An important feature of the concert is the closing 
hymn, in which all present join heartily, known as 
" The Carmen," and the rnusic to which was written 
by Mr. Horsley, who from 1837-58 was organist of 
Chartei'house. 

Charterhouse occupies famous ground. As we 
have seen, the site was for centuries devoted to 
ecclesiastical uses. The buildings occupy an irregu- 



272 SciiooL-BoY Life i^ Mekkie EngLxVnd. 

lar plot of ground in what is now Clerkenwell, 
bounded by St. John Street Road, Aldersgate Street, 
Wilderness Row, and Charterhouse Square, the main 
gate opening on the latter. Within a stone's throw- 
is Sinithfield, scene of unnumbered burnings, whip- 
pings, and scourgings in the times of religious perse- 
cutions in England, whence the cant or slang name 
of " Smiffle," which Carthusians often use in refer- 
ring to their beloved school. Also near by was the 
old priory of St. John, occupied by the Knights 
Templar, who removed therefrom to the Temple. 
The whole district is now densely populated by an 
artisan class, and Clerkenwell has been long famed 
for its watch-making. 

By the enormous rise in values of house property 
Charterhouse has waxed opulent, and is now one of 
the wealthiest benevolent corporations in the wealthy 
city of London. On that part of the property front- 
ing on Aldersgate Street a large block of warehouses 
was erected some years ago, which alone yield a hand- 
some revenue. On the night of October 8, 1885, a 
fire, involving a loss of $5,000,000, consumed thir- 
teen of these warehouses and their contents, besides 
damaging sliglitly the Merchant Taylors' School. 

Historical memories cluster around the venerable 



Charterhouse School. 273 

pile in Charterhouse Square. Here Prior Houghton 
entertained Sir Thomas More and Dean Colet. 
Queen Elizabeth visited and was royally welcomed 
by Lord North, its first lay owner, and her successor, 
James First, slept, for the first time in the metropolis, 
under its roof when he came southward by the great 
North Road to claim his throne. ^' In the Governor's 
Room Elizabeth and James First held court — indeed, 
almost all the illustrious characters of England, and 
not a few of the great men of foreign countries, 
from the days of Henry Eighth down to the death of 
Charles First, were acquainted with it ; some of them 
as inhabitants of the mansion, some as attendants on 
Queen Elizabeth or James First, some as visitors and 
guests of the noble owners of the mansion, some as 
governors of Sutton's charity. After the triumph 
of the Cromwellians all the leading men of that party 
attended meetings in it, and since the restoration the 
governors have always been men of eminence in 
Church and State." 

As is the case with all of the sister schools, 
many of the greatest men of modern England have 
been educated there. Here are a few notable names : 
Thirl wall ; Grote, the great historian of Greece ; 

Lord-Chief-Justice Ellenborough ; Lord Liverj)ool, 

18 



274 SciiooL-J3oY Life in Mekkie England. 

sometime j)i*iiiie minister of Eiigland ; Sir Henry 
Havelock, the gallant soldier of the Indian Mutiny ; 
Sir C. L. Eastlake, P.K.A., whose paintings are 
known throughout the world ; Sir William Black- 
stone, the illustrious commentator on the common 
law ; Isaac Barrow ; Joseph Addison, and his friend 
and co-laborer on The Spectator, Sir Richard Steele, 
and John Wesley."^ 

On August 8, 1757, Wesley revisited the scenes of 
his boyish life, and comments thereon in his journal: 
" I wondered that all the squares and buildings, and 
especially the school-boys, looked so little. I was lit- 
tle myself when I was at school, and measured all 
about me by myself." In the Charterhouse he laid 
the foundation of his great learning and extensive 
acquirements. 

Wesley^s father owed the privilege of admission to 
Charterhouse for his son to the Duke of Bucking- 
ham. The boy seems to have had a hard time ; the 
elder boys took by force the meat given to the 

* " It is a curious coincidence that in the year 1397 there was 
founded at Epworth, in Leicestershire, bj' the Earl of Nottingham, a 
Carthusian monastery, the seventh in the kingdom. At Epworth 
John Wesley was born in later times, and was sent all the way to 
London to attend school at the only place in the realm where the 
name and fame of the ancient order survived." 



Charterhouse School. 275 

younger, and for tlie five years he was there the 
greater part of the time the only solid food he got 
was bread. Wliile there, says Tyerinan, he "lost the 
reliarion which had marked his character from the 
days of infancy ; " but it does not follow that the 
school was a particularly godless place. In later life 
Wesley attributed his robust health to the fact that 
he always obeyed his father's strict command to run 
round the Charterhouse play-ground three times every 
morning. 

Thackeray was educated at Charterhouse — not, in- 
deed, as one of Sutton's poor scholars, for he was not 
a "gown boy," but as their companion in the school. 
Here, too, in his powerful novel, The Newcomes^ it 
will be remembered, we find old Colonel Newcome 
seeking refuge during the last years of his life as one 
of tlie eighty poor brothers for whom the founder's 
bounty provided. 

The list of pensioners includes many names that at 
one time or another filled men's mouths. The feat- 
ures of Thackeray's Colonel Newcome were said to 
have been a study from life of one old Charterhouse 
"poor gentleman." Elkanah Settle, Dryden's rival, 
died within the precincts of Charterhouse in 1724 ; 
Stephen Gray, the noted scientist, was a pensioner ; 



276 SciiooL-BoY Life in Merkie England. 

so was Zacliariali Williams, the naturalist. Indeed, 
the army, the Church, the bench, the bar, and medi- 
cine have supplied many a recipient of Sutton's 
bounty. 

But we must now take up the third and last period 
of the annals of Charterhouse — the removal of the 
school to Godalming, in Surrey. The following re- 
sume of the reasons for this radical step are presented 
by Mr. Brown : 

" When Sutton selected Howard House as the best 
site for his Hospital this liouse was then on the very 
outskirts of the city. It was surrounded on all sides 
by open spaces. On the north the village of Isling- 
ton lay about a mile distant from the walls of Char- 
terhouse, and the walk between them was through 
green fields ; farther to the east was the neighboring 
village of Hackney. On the west the houses of Snow 
Hill and Newgate Street were not yet built; no 
buildings were to be seen in the Strand. On the 
south the left bank of the river was only sparsely oc- 
cupied by the mansions of peers and wealthy mer- 
chants. And even for two hundred years after the 
founder's death Charterhouse School was on the bor- 
ders of a rural locality. But the condition of things 
was altogether changed when the site, once so admi- 



Chakterhouse School. 277 

rably adapted for its purpose, was closely surrounded 
by a densely crowded population, when every trace of 
rural freshness was abolished, and the boys were of 
necessity closely confined within five acres surrounded 
by high brick walls and overlooked from the upper 
stories of Goswell Street and Wilderness Kow. Such 
a change had come over the neighborhood of the 
school that even those- who had been educated in it 
began to withdraw from it. They regarded it, indeed, 
with that strong attachment which generally binds 
Englishmen to the schools in which they have been 
trained, and declared that they would do any thing 
for it except send their boys to it." 

Thus the school found itself decaying, in spite of 
all that could be done, and at length the oft-mooted 
removal became an accomplished fact. 

In 1864 the Public Schools Commissioners stated 
it as their belief that " the school would thrive much 
better if removed to some eligible site in the coun- 
try," and in 1867 Parliament passed an act empower- 
ing the governors to make the necessary changes, to 
acquire a new site and erect new buildings thereon, 
etc. A careful review of seven or eight eligible spots 
ended by selecting an estate of nearly seventy acres, 
situate about a mile from the beautiful town of 



278 School-Boy Life in Merrie England. 

Godalming, in the county of Surrey, and thirty-four 
miles distant from the metropolis. It would have 
been difficult to choose a better locality. 

"The site of the school is an extensive plateau 
which commands a view of one of the most lovely 
panoramas in England. On the north is the long 
and beautiful ridge known as the Hog's Back ; on the 
west the noble range of hills which is terminated by 
Hindhead and Blackdown ; southward are the downs 
which rise above Hambledon ; and in yet further dis- 
tance on the east the view is closed by the chain which 
is marked by St. Martha's Mount and Leith Hill. 
On all sides except the north the plateau is bounded 
by wooded slopes of hazel, interspersed with well- 
grown oak trees. Between the school and the town 
the river Wey follows its winding course, and adds 
beauty to the landscape. At the foot of the hill, 
Godalndng, with its ancient church, the spire rising 
high above the neighboring roofs, lies amidst an ex- 
panse of green meads. Beyond it the scene is com- 
posed of broken hills, rich pastures and extensive 
woods, and, nestling among these, cottages, farm- 
steads, and church towers give a human interest to 
the sight." ^ 

* William ITaig Brown. 



Charterhouse School. 279 

Fittingly enough, ground was broken on Founder's 
Day, December 12, 1869, and on June 18, 1872, the 
boys met in the new buildings, two years after the 
first stone had been laid. Many of the historic 
stones in old Charterhouse, on which were carved the 
names of boys who had been educated at the school, 
were removed and built into the new house, and are 
now arranged in the cloister, at the east end of the 
chapel. The earliest name placed on these stones 
was cut in 1778, and there are some as late as 1818. 

Tlie removal worked a very speedy change in the 
fortunes of Charterhouse, and the increase in attend- 
ance mounted rapidly from quarter to quarter. In 
1872 there were but 180 boys enrolled ; by 1876 the 
attendance had reached the maximum number, 500. 

Charterhouse is especially rich in scholarships, 
prizes, and exhibitions, there being over a hundred 
of these, ranging in value from £5 to £80 per an- 
num, and they are all open to every boy in the school, 
whether he be a humble free scholar, or the son 
of wealthy parents who pay liberally for his tuition. 

Boys must be between the ages of eleven and fif- 
teen to obtain entrance to Charterhouse, and the stat- 
utes insist that the following subjects shall be taught 
to all boys in their progress through the school: 



280 School-Boy Life in Merrie England. 

Eeligious knowledge, classics, arithmetic, mathemat- 
ics, natural science, history, geography, English, and 
either French or German. 

Allusion has been made to the poor brothers of 
the Charterhouse, and these decayed old gentlemen 
are not the least interesting feature in its history. 
As already said, Thackeray's Colonel Newcome was 
generally believed to have been a sketch from life, 
and we cannot more fitly close this sketch than by 
introducing the story of the old pensioner's last 
days in Sutton's hospital, as portrayed by the master- 
hand. 

After a boyhood spent in the famous school, and 
a brave and checkered career in the service of his 
country, monetary misfortunes overtake him in old 
age, and he is compelled to crave shelter within the 
very walls where, as a careless, happy child, he fought, 
and studied, and played, and where he is discovered 
by his friend and whilom school-mate, during the 
celebration of Founder's Day: 

" The service for Founder's Day is a special one. 
One of the psalms selected being the 37th, and we 
liear : 

*'23 The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord, and 
he delighteth in his way. 



Chartekpiouse School. 281 

"24 Though he fall he shall not be utterly cast down, for 
the Lord upholdeth him with his hand, 

" 25 I have been young, and now am old, yet have I not seen 
the righteous forsaken nor his seed begging bread. 

" As we came to this verse I chanced to look up 
from my book towards the swarm of black-coated 
pensioners, and among them sat Thomas Newcome. 

" His dear old head was bent down over his Prayer- 
Book; there was no mistaking him. He wore the 
black gown of the pensioners of the Hospital of 
Greyf riars. His Order of the Bath was on his breast. 
He stood there among the poor brethren uttering the 
responses to the psalm. The steps of this good man 
been ordered hither by Heaven's decree to this alms- 
house ! Here it was ordained that a life all love and 
kindness and honor should end ! . . . The organ played 
us out of chapel at length, and I waited in the ante- 
chapel until the pensioners took their time to quit it. 
My dear, dear old friend ! I ran to him w^ith a 
warmth and eagerness of recognition which no doul)t 
showed themselves in my face and accents as my 
iieart was moved at the sight of him. His own wan 
face flushed up when he saw me, and his hand shook 
in mine. 'I have found a home, Arthur,' said he. 
' Don't you remember, before I went to India, when 



282 SciiooL-BoY Life in Merrie England. 

we cume to see tlie old Greyfriars, and visited Cap- 
tain Scarsdale in liis room ? — a poor brotlier like me — 
an old Peninsula man. Scarsdale is gone now, sir, 
and is wdiere the wicked cease from troubling and the 
weary are at rest. . . . And I thought then when we saw 
him, here would be a place for an old fellow, when his 
career was over, to hang his sword up ; to humble his 
soul, and to wait thankfully for the end, Arthur. 
My good friend, Lord IL, who is a Cistercian like 
ourselves, and has just been appointed a Governor, 
gave me his first nomination. Don't be agitated, 
Arthur, my boy ; I am very happy. I have good 
quarters, good food, good light and fire, and good 
friends ; blessed be God ! My dear, kind young 
friend — my boy's friend — you have been always so, 
sir, and I take it uncommonly kind of you, and I thank 
God for you, sir. Why, sir, I am as happy as the 
day is long.' He uttered words to this effect as we 
walked through the courts of the building toward his 
room, which in truth I found neat and comfortable, 
with a brisk fire crackling on the hearth, a little 
tea-table laid out, a Bible and spectacles by the side 
of it, and over the mantel-piece a drawing of his 
grandson." 

Bat tlie dear old Colonel's days are drawing to a 



Charterhouse School. 283 

close. Sickness intervenes, which proves to be only 
the beginning of the end : 

"The old man must have passed a sleepless 
night, for on going to his chamber in the morning 
his attendant found him dressed in his chair and 
his bed undisturbed. He must have sat all through 
the bitter night witliout a fire ; but his hands were 
burning hot. He spoke of some one coming to 
drink tea with him, pointed to the fire, and asked 
why it was not made ? The bell began to ring for 
morning chapel ; he got up and went toward his 
gown, groping toward it as though he could hardly 
see, and put it over his shoulders, and would go 
out, but he would have fallen in the court if the 
good nurse had not given him her arm ; and the 
physician of the hospital passing fortunately at this 
moment, who had always been a great friend of Col- 
onel Newcome's, insisted on leading him back to his 
room again, and got him to bed. *When the bell 
stopped he wanted to rise once more ; he fancied 
he was a boy at school again,' said the nurse, ' and 
that he was going in to Dr. Raine, who was school- 
master here ever so many years ago.' . . . After 
some days the fever which liad attacked him left 
him, but left him so weak and enfeebled that he 



284: School-Boy Life in Mekrie England. 

could only go from liis bed to the chair by his fire- 
side. The season was exceedingly bitter ; the cham- 
ber which he inhabited was warm and spacious ; it 
was considered un advisable to move him until he 
had attained greater strength, and till warmer 
w^eather. The medical men at the house hoped he 
might rally in spring. . . . But our colonel, we all 
were obliged to acknowledge, was no more our friend 
of old days. lie knew us again, and was good to 
every one round him, as his wont was, especially 
when Boy came ; his old eyes lighted up with simple 
happiness, and with eager, trembling hands he would 
seek under his bed-clothes or the pockets of his dress- 
ing-gown for toys, or cakes, which he had caused to 
be purchased for his grandson. There was a little 
laughing red-cheeked, white-headed gown-boy of the 
school to whom the old man had taken a great fancy. 
One of the symptoms of his returning consciousness 
and recovery, as we hoped, was his calling for this 
child, who pleased our friend by his archness and 
merry ways, and who, to the old gentleman's unfail- 
ing delight, used to call him Codd Colonel. 'Tell 

little F that Codd Colonel wants to see him,' 

and the little gown-boy was brought to him, and the 
colonel would listen to him for hours, and hear all 



Chakteriiouse School. 285 

about his lessons and his play, and prattle almost as 
childishly about Dr. Kaine and his own early school- 
days. The boys of the school, it must be said, had 
heard the noble old gentleman's touching history, and 
bad all got to know him and love him. Tliey came 
every day to hear news of him, sent him in books and 
papers to amuse him. . . . The days went on, and 
our hopes, raised sometimes, began to flicker and fail. 
One evening the colonel left his chair for his bed in 
pretty good spirits, but passed a disturbed night, 
and the next morning was too weak to rise. Then 
he remained in his bed, and his friends visited him 
there. One afternoon he asked for his little gowm- 
boy, and the child was brought to him, and sat by 
the bed wath a very awe-stricken face, and then 
gathered courage and tried to amuse him by telling 
him how it was a half-holiday, and they were having 
a cricket match with the St. Peter's boys on the 
green, and Greyfriars was 'in' and winning. The 
colonel quite understood about it — he would like to 
see the game — he had played many a game on that 
green when he was a boy. . . . After the child had gone 
Thomas Newcome began to wander more and more. 
He talked louder ; he gave the w^ord of command ; 
spoke Hindustanee, as if to his men. The patient's 



280 School-Boy Life m Mekkie England. 

voice sank into faint murmurs; only a moan now 
and then announced that he was not asleep. At the 
usual evening hour the chapel bell began to toll, and 
Thomas Newcome's hands outside the bed feebly 
beat time. And just as the last bell struck a pe- 
culiar sweet smile shone over his face, and he lifted 
up his head a little and quickly said, ' Adsum ! ' and 
fell back. It was the word we used at school when 
names were called, and lo, he whose heart was as that 
of a little child, had answered to his name and stood 
in the presence of the Master." 



THE END. 




LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



ill 



022 127 842 ♦ 



